Vlad Jr. back in superstar mode with near-cycle, 20-game hit streak

TORONTO -- There it is again, the gravitational pull of a superstar.

The Toronto Blue Jays are again orbiting around Vladimir Guerrero Jr., one of the hottest hitters on the planet who is putting on the biggest renaissance tour since Beyoncé.

Vladdy doubled, tripled and homered while driving in four runs in Thursday night’s 7-6 win over the Orioles at Rogers Centre, extending his hitting streak to 20 games with another overwhelming performance. Over this streak, Guerrero has hit 10 home runs and taken more walks (11) than strikeouts (seven). He’s not just showing flashes and glimmers of what once was, he’s all the way back.

As Guerrero rounded the bases after his home run, slamming those mighty hands together to complete the choreography, he crossed home plate and pointed up into the crowd. His father, Vladimir Guerrero, was in Toronto on Thursday. Difficult as this is to believe, Vladdy said this was the first time his father has been in attendance to see him hit a home run in a big league game in person.

“Once I hit it, I knew it was gone,” Guerrero said through a club interpreter, “but not until I touched home plate and I pointed at him was I kind of like, ‘… Wow. Finally, he saw one.’”

The talent has always been there, but what makes Guerrero’s recent stretch so significant is that it felt like we’d never see it again. Coming off his brilliant 2021 season, when only Shohei Ohtani could keep him from claiming the American League MVP Award, Guerrero had been what the rest of baseball would consider a “very good” hitter for two-plus years. Ninety percent of the league would have been happy with his numbers, but this is Vladdy, the great hope whose expectations have never been down here where normal players live.

Now batting .321 with a .945 OPS, Guerrero has thrust himself into the race for the AL batting title, where the rest of the world is still chasing down Bobby Witt Jr. (.349). Thursday’s home run was Guerrero’s 23rd of the season, which tells you how slow his start to the year was, and while he’s not about to take a run at his career high of 48 in 2021, his OPS that year -- 1.002 -- is suddenly within reach.

Fast facts on Guerrero’s 20-game hitting streak:

• Since 1901, only eight MLB players have hit at least .500 with at least 10 home runs over a 20-game span: Rogers Hornsby (1928), Jimmie Foxx (1933), Lou Gehrig (1936), Frank Thomas (1997), Larry Walker (1999), Richard Hidalgo (2000), Chipper Jones (2006) ... and Guerrero.

• Guerrero is the second player in Blue Jays history with multiple hitting streaks of at least 20 games, joining Dámaso García.

• In Blue Jays history, no player has hit for a higher average (.507) or a higher slugging percentage (1.096) over a 20-game span. Guerrero’s 37 hits during the streak are also the most in such a span in franchise history.

“He’s not giving at-bats away. That’s what separates good from great,” said manager John Schneider. “There are times that could be easy to do. He’s taking his walk or not chasing. He’s swinging at pitches he should swing at and laying off tough pitches. The way he approaches every single at-bat is what goes unnoticed. You’re watching a really great player figure some [stuff] out right now.”

In a perfect world, Guerrero’s hot streak would be lifting the Blue Jays from good to great, from a contender to a World Series threat, but the club left a perfect world months ago.

If anything, Guerrero has repositioned himself in the middle of it all. Every single conversation the Blue Jays have about 2025 will be tied to Guerrero, either by an inch or a mile. This organization has one year left to build up a championship-caliber team around Guerrero before he becomes a free agent … unless it doesn’t.

We’re one more home run away from a “Pay The Man!” chant raining down at Rogers Centre. It’s difficult to sell this fan base on the hope of 2025, even if significant changes are made. They’ve lived through years of good teams and bad endings, an exhausting experience given their emotional investment. If the Blue Jays can extend that hope beyond ‘25, though -- and extend Guerrero -- that’s how they can grab this fanbase again.

Guerrero stood in front of the cameras postgame, sharing the story about his father, when Victor Martinez walked by. Martinez is working with the Blue Jays as a special assistant and overlapped with Vlad Sr. in the big leagues for years.

As Martinez passed, he waited for his moment between questions and said:

“He’s going to be better than his dad.”