Vlad matches dad with milestone home run

Since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. won’t appear in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby this season, we might as well enjoy the nearly three-month derby he has put on so far.

Guerrero cracked his 26th home run on Saturday, which moved him back into sole possession of the MLB lead and contributed to the Blue Jays’ dominant 12-4 win over the Orioles at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, N.Y.

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“The way he’s swinging the bat right now, every time that he goes to home plate you’re waiting for that,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said. “That’s the player he is; that’s how impressive he is, and he’s having a good time.”

The Blue Jays’ 22-year-old slugger has homered in three straight games and four of his past seven as part of a seven-game hitting streak. His 26th homer marked the second most through 75 games in Blue Jays history, behind only George Bell (27 in 1987). Guerrero has 50 career home runs, and he’s second fastest in franchise history to that mark, too (258 games), behind only Fred McGriff (229).

Another player who had 50 homers in 258 games: his Hall of Fame father, Vladimir Guerrero Sr., who hit his 50th in game No. 248 before going homerless his next 10 games.

Toronto pounced on Baltimore with a trio of four-run frames, the first of which came in the third inning. After Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette each doubled with two outs, Guerrero stepped up and sent Keegan Akin’s first-pitch changeup over the wall in left-center field.

The projected 403-foot bomb was Guerrero’s only hit of the game, though he did walk twice on a total of nine pitches in his next two plate appearances.

You might think one of baseball’s best home run hitters would want to inflate his zone and indulge in a flurry of swinging heat checks. But that’s not how Guerrero came to earn his MLB-best .443 on-base percentage. When he sees a pitch in a zone he likes, he wallops it; when he doesn’t, he’s content to take a walk.

His swing/take profile underscores that discipline. Guerrero’s ability to demolish pitches in the heart of the zone and disregard pitches out of the zone has led to a swing/take run value of 42. No other player has a value of more than 25.

“That’s the thing I’m most impressed about [with] Vladdy,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “For being such a young guy, if he doesn’t get strikes, he’ll take a walk. He’s not gonna chase bad pitches. 'If you don’t pitch to me? All right, Teo, get him.' Or [George] Springer, or whoever’s behind him.”

A healthy Blue Jays lineup, with seven regulars posting an OPS above league average (Guerrero, Bichette, Semien, Hernández, Springer, Randal Grichuk and Reese McGuire), means there are few places to hide if an opposing pitcher intends to work around Toronto’s hot-hitting first baseman.

That proved true Saturday, as there were plenty of hits to go around for the rest of the lineup, especially of the extra-base variety: Grichuk and Hernández also homered, while Bichette and Semien each doubled twice.

The Blue Jays racked up 15 hits for the seventh time this season; only Houston, with nine 15-hit games, has more. Toronto also collected all 12 of its runs with two outs. When healthy, this lineup acts as advertised, by extending innings and providing plenty of pop.

The most notable pop tends to come off the bat of Guerrero, of course. After Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr.'s three-homer game Friday night brought him even with Guerrero atop the home run leaderboard, Guerrero wasted no time pulling ahead again.

Guerrero and Tatis (and don’t forget the Angels' Shohei Ohtani, who has 24 home runs) could give us a summer-long show in the hunt to be home run king. But how aware is Guerrero of the ongoing race? Montoyo can’t be sure.

“I haven’t asked him about what he’s thinking about anybody else,” Montoyo said. “[But] he keeps doing it. He’s been impressive. He’s been fun to watch.”