Slide of the spring so far: Vlad Jr.'s belly flop

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- A huge wall. A short slide. A rough landing.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s second at-bat of Saturday's matchup against the Red Sox had it all.

Boston's Green Monster has been known to take away a home run or two in its day, but on Saturday at JetBlue Park, after its replica at Fenway South took away what might have been Guerrero's third home run of the spring, the Blue Jays infielder robbed himself of a double with an attempt at a slide coming well short of second base.

"That's a learning [experience]," Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said after his club's 5-2 loss. "I [told him to] learn from that. The ball's in front of you, so if you know you're not going to make it, you can stop. … He's a kid, so he's got to learn from that."

After popping out to second base in his first at-bat against the Red Sox, Guerrero launched the first pitch he saw from reliever Eduard Bazardo out to left field, nearly sending the ball over the Monster. Somewhere slower than sprint-level out of the batter's box, Toronto's third baseman realized he needed to pick up the pace as he rounded first.

As the ball made its way from left field to second base, Guerrero got on the ground as he approached the bag, landing awkwardly about 90 percent of the way there with a belly flop before being tagged out. He was rewarded with a single for his effort, in his 1-for-2 day.

Guerrero exited the game before Toronto returned to the field for the defensive half of the inning and was replaced at third base by Nash Knight.