Blue Jays Waste Guerrero Jr. Home Run in Loss to Phillies

[Box Score]

It all could have been beautiful. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. broke up a shutout by Vince Velasquez down in Dunedin to put the Toronto Blue Jays up 1-0. It was his 9th home run of the 2021 season.

Now that’s a piece of hitting off a guy throwing a shutout, to lash a ball out to the opposite field as he has several times this year already.

Guerrero Jr. continues to – while cooling off some inevitably in the month of May – string together a nice season at the plate and stay in most categories with the league leaders while being an anchor in the middle of the Toronto lineup.

However, Tim Mayza was brought on in the top half of the 7th inning to get out Bryce Harper. With two outs, he walked Harper and you could sense trouble was brewing. Then, he walked J.T. Realmuto.

Finally, Rhys Hoskins blew the Toronto doors off with a double into the gap. I couldn’t get to the damn live bet screen fast enough, as the Phillies were up 4-1 before I got there. I saw the pen unraveling and finally knew they were due for a loss after sweeping the Atlanta Braves.

Of course all of this wasted five scoreless innings from Steven Matz, which you’re not going to get very often. Also, Matz had nine strikeouts.