Curtain call for Vlad’s first Rogers Centre home run highlights Blue Jays strange night

Cease aided by early ABS challenge as Vlad lifts weight off his shoulders

The defining storyline of Sunday’s series finale, rubber game of the Blue Jays vs. Orioles, was expected to be Jays starter Dylan Cease and his continuing quest for the AL Cy Young award. Instead, it became a day to remember for the Jays’ light-hitting (?) first-baseman, weighed down with some heavy-hitting expectations. Vlad Guerrero Jr., went 4-for-5 with a double and a home run, a standing O and a curtain call.

In the fifth inning, after George Springer snapped a 1-1 tie with a two-out homer off Trevor Rogers, Vlad stepped in and launched a full-count 94 m.p.h. duck-hook, barely over the left field wall into the home bullpen, with the 41,805 at Rogers Centre losing their minds for the entirety of his face-of-the-franchise 34-plus seconds trot around the bases. Vlad, despite some seeming uncertainty, had stayed in the batter’s box watching with interest, turning to elation as he had finally stroked his 2026 maiden round-tripper, north of the border. Was he so sure it was out that he didn’t run?

“I know my stadium,” Vlad said through team interpreter Tito Lebron, translating right down to Vlad’s sly smile at the question. “I can recognize at the plate when I hit it. That’s an area (of the outfield) I’ve seen balls going out at 80 (mph) exit velocity. So, I saw it, I thought that’s going to be gone.”

The emotional exhale from the fans in the stand was matched by teammates in the dugout and likely equalled by some deep breaths in homes across Canada, from those watching on TV. Never in 54 years in MLB have I seen a curtain call for the feat of a first home run at home, coming on Sept. 13 from a player that had once hammered 92 big flies in an All-Star Home Run Derby. Never, that is, until Sunday.

“I knew (the first home home run) was going to happen, today, tomorrow, at some point,” Vlad said. “But I never had the pressure. I never thought about hitting a home run here. It wasn’t like I’ve got to hit a home run today. Just going through my progressions and everything, prepare myself for the game and whatever happens, happens. I never felt the pressure of hitting a home run here.”

Guerrero Jr. was clearly lying. But he can be forgiven.

The Jays have finally clawed their way back to .500 and remain in the thick of the hunt for WC3 with their win over the Orioles, taking two of three in the series. The O’s have retreated to the periphery of mathematical hopes for dancing in October.

How tough is this to handicap? There are nine AL teams with between 70 and 76 wins, with two division titles and one wildcard still to be decided. The Jays are part of that chaos and all they can do is try and beat the opponent they are facing on any given day. The Jays play the O’s three more games in Baltimore next week, as well as three vs. the Rangers and three against the Tigers who are not burning too bright, coming to Rogers Centre, starting Monday.

But let’s not forget about the Jays’ star starter, Cease, and his five-inning effort that provided him an 11^th win, with a 2.38 ERA and nine more strikeouts. In New York, his main competition for Cy, the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler, worked six innings in a shutout win over the Mets. The Yankees ace is becoming the odds-on favourite.

The first-inning started as a daunting running of the gauntlet for Cease, but became a key turning point for the Jays. The ace righty threw his first 24 pitches without yet recording an out, loading the bases on a hit and two walks. The key came on pitch number 25. A full-count fastball was initially called ball-four by umpire Scott Barry, but rookie catcher Brandon Valenzuela tapped his helmet and the challenge reversed the RBI walk to a strikeout. He then struck out the side with no runs.

“That was huge,” manager John Schneider agreed. “It’s kind of an uncomfortable feeling, bases loaded nobody out. You’re kind of conceding a run or two, there. To get that strikeout of (Colby) Mayo (on a challenge), that’s big.

“I think those are the spots you kind of want to use them if they’re close. The next two strikeouts … we know he can miss bats. I think, right there, we had Ricky (Tiedemann) up in the first inning, just looking at pitch count there with nobody out, that shifted the momentum immediately. Good job by (Valenzuela).”

The rookie catcher was asked about the satisfaction he felt in his instincts to challenge and turn an RBI walk into a strikeout and a Houdini escape for his pitcher.

“I thought it was a strike right away,” Valenzuela explained. “I was set up in the middle of the plate and called a fastball. I was trying to throw a fastball to fill up the plate and I thought that was a strike for sure. That was game-changing for him. It was more of a relief (for Dylan), or a calmness after that. He was rushing his motion, just to be quicker to the plate and he didn’t need to be.”

For his part, Cease was asked about whether any negative thoughts had perhaps crept in as his pitch-count mounted with still nobody out for the Orioles.

“Honestly, with pitch clock, there isn’t enough time to think too many negative thoughts,” Cease said in a rare thank you to MLB’s new rules to speed up the game. “It’s more just trying to figure out why the ball’s not going where it needs to, or assess what needs to be thrown. Really no time to think negative.”

To wrap up the big night, it was pointed out to Guerrero Jr. that the Blue Jays back-to-back-to-back home runs in the fifth, by Springer, Vlad and Kaz Okamoto, the seventh three-in-a-row in Jays’ 50-year history, was the first by a trio from different countries. Vlad was asked, with USA and Japan, did he choose to be recognized among the three, for his Dominican heritage or his Canadian birthplace.

“Both,” he said with a broad smile, without waiting for the interpreter. Vlad has a future in diplomacy.