Vladdy hits his first HR at Rogers Centre in 2023 

TORONTO -- Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s season has felt like one of those novelty signs you’ll see outside a bar that reads: “Free beer tomorrow!”

It feels so close and sounds so close, but never comes. It’s always a day away.

Finally, Friday night against the A’s, Guerrero opened up the taps with his first home run at home in 2023. It’s a stunning number for the Blue Jays’ star, even in a season where he’s shown only flickers and flashes of his MVP-caliber talent. A full 371 players had hit home runs in their home ballparks this season, making Guerrero -- somehow -- No. 372.

This Blue Jays team struggles to find nights where it all goes right at the same time, though. It’s that theory of “playing in sync” that manager John Schneider covets. After Guerrero’s blast at Rogers Centre put Toronto up 4-3, Oakland came back to win it in the ninth, 5-4. Nothing takes the wind out of a major moment like losing to the team with baseball’s worst record at 20-58.

Guerrero’s blast should have been playing on the big screen while his teammates doused him with ice water postgame, like he typically does to them, but instead it’s relegated to the role of silver lining. This still leaves Schneider encouraged after he’s supported his slugger for so long, believing the power would come back around, but the two strikes that got Guerrero into that 1-2 count were also on his mind.

“That was good to see,” Schneider said. “It’s just a little bit frustrating where there was a pretty deliberate approach that we had, and whether it was a ball or ball and a half off that was getting called, you want to stick with that [plan] and stay consistent with it. Tonight, they got the calls, and that’s how it goes. But with Vlad, if he can continue to do that, we’re going to be in a really good spot.”

This finally looked like a Guerrero classic, though. It had been so long.

He launched a James Kaprielian fastball 434 feet to left field, complete with the high finish and confident stroll out of the box. Four steps from the box, still admiring his blast, Guerrero flung his bat to the ground and rounded the bases.

Guerrero entered with just one home run off a non-position player in his past 41 games, too. There was a home run off the Rays’ Luke Raley mixed in there in May, but Raley was a first baseman pitching in a blowout. This power outage has been baffling at times, especially because Guerrero has the exit velocity and launch angle numbers that suggest something so much greater. Guerrero and the Blue Jays walk parallel paths in that sense.

“I want to keep working, and I’m going to keep working,” Guerrero said through a club interpreter. “I’m the type of person who is not going to get comfortable. It feels good, of course, but I’m not going to get comfortable with that. I’m going to continue my plan, keep working with and trusting my coaches.”

This whole thing only works when Guerrero -- or Bo Bichette or anyone else -- is the star of a larger effort, not just a star trying to carry the team to victory. The Blue Jays didn’t score again after Guerrero’s three-run shot capped a four-run inning in the third.

It was another difficult outing for Chris Bassitt, too, who gave the Blue Jays five innings of four-run ball on just 83 pitches. After a long first inning, Bassitt turned over the pitch-calling duties to catcher Danny Jansen. The Blue Jays wanted to see a better pace and soon did, but much of the damage had been done.

“I’m obviously struggling a little bit right now, and less is more,” Bassitt said. “I’m not sure if I’m tipping the way I sequence pitches. I’m not sure really what’s going on right now. It’s just a matter of less is more. I think it really went well. I think at times I’m thinking too much on the mound rather than competing. It’s a funky dynamic.”

This Blue Jays roster is too talented to play this up-and-down brand of baseball much longer, and a 41-36 record might look a lot different outside the AL East, but we’ve been saying those things for a while now. Just like Guerrero’s homerless streak at Rogers Centre, these things need to come to their own emphatic ends eventually.

That long-promised “tomorrow” finally came for Vladdy, but he’s not the only player waiting on one.