The Jays’ Bo Bichette and Vlad Guerrero are brothers in arms — or bats, at least
Vladdy #Vladdy
DUNEDIN, FLA.—Maybe you’ve seen the lovely photo that has been circulating on social media recently: Bo and Vladdy in the Blue Jays dugout. Vladdy with his arm around Bo’s shoulders. Fraternal, like. Buddy-buddy.
Bros in baseball. Brothers from another mother. On the same psychic wavelength, vibing.
Both, as it’s turned out, absolutely humming through the first dozen games of the 2021 campaign.
Bo Bichette homered twice in Wednesday’s 5-4 rubber match with the New York Yankees, including a leadoff, walk-off round-tripper on a hanging slider in the bottom of the ninth. He extended his hitting streak to 11 games.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was among the first to greet him at the plate in a spritz of bottled water. Guerrero had a pair of singles that shot off his bat at 110.8 and 116.1 miles per hour. He has reached base safely in every game this season.
And the Blue Jays, having taken two series off their American League rivals, are back to .500.
What a grand game, is baseball, for this youthful duo.
Guerrero is the more outward expressive of the two, at least for the prying eye of the TV camera, endlessly jolly, occasionally mischievously goofy and teasing of teammates.
In what was an afternoon of dramatic performance for Bichette — his second career walk-off homer, his second multihomer game in a season scarcely a fortnight deep — but he was most animated talking about his pal Guerrero, who is hitting .390, 16-for-41, with two doubles, two round-trippers, nine ribbies and nine walks, testament to the 22-year-old’s maturing patience at the plate.
“It’s awesome to see,” said Bichette, the native Floridian, about the Dominican who certainly appears primed to bust out and fulfil all the lofty predictions made of him. “He’s been through a lot the last couple of years and to see him put the work in, then see it translate. He’s back to Vladdy.”
What Bichette means by that: “Smiling in the dugout, having fun. I haven’t seen him get out and smile about his outs since Double-A. And he’s been doing that a lot ’cause he knows he’s going to get them at some point.”
Try to find yourself someone who looks at you the way these two true hearts look at each other.
“He was always smiling,” Bichette hastens to add. “But when you’re raking like he is now, it just comes out a little bit more.”
Bichette could say the same about himself. But he’d rather stoke Vladdy as the ideal teammate.
“He loves people. He wants the best for everybody around him. He pushes me. He’s always trying to help me get better. Our relationship means a lot. We’ve been together four years now. We’ve grown up together really and it’s been awesome to see his growth and be with him through it all.”
Right back at Bo, no doubt, if Vladdy had been plopped in front of a zoom mic.
When Guerrero speaks, when he offers hitting advice, Bichette is all ears. “He pays attention to my at-bats and stuff. He’s not afraid to come up to me and tell me something.”
Along with his dad, Dante Bichette, Cavan Biggio and coach John Schneider, who’s matriculated through the ranks with his young studs, Bichette says Guerrero has the best measure of him. “Those guys have been around me forever. They know me better that anyone. So they have the right to come up to me and say something if they see something.
“And Vladdy, he never hesitates.”
It hasn’t always been that way, effortlessly simpatico, Bo and Vladdy. “Definitely not. We had to learn each other first, earn each other’s respect. He’s got mine. I think he can be the best hitter in the world. So any time he’s got something to say, I’m going to listen.”
Of his own achievements on the day, Bichette was more modestly reflective.
“I think I’m just starting to heat up. I think that I was grinding for a while and staying alive. That’s part of baseball. You fight until you start feeling good and I just feel good.”
He’s learned that he doesn’t have to let the game speed up in the box, doesn’t have to swing as soon as the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand. “You always have more time than you think.”
In Bichette’s estimation, his play in the past few days wasn’t up to par, his streak and some superb defensive episodes notwithstanding. “I wasn’t trusting myself in my full ability.”
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Observers might demur but Bo knows Bo. “Just being ready to hit every pitch. I think when you’re not ready to do damage you can go out of the zone a little bit, you can get passive, take good pitches to hit. I think when you’re ready to hit, you might swing at some bad pitches but you’re ready to do damage. So, for me, it’s just about feeling that I’m ready to do damage.”
Toronto continued to do damage, collectively, at the expense of the Yankees, who haven’t exactly been looking like the formidable Yankees as advertised for ’21. They’ve hit into an MLB-leading 16 double plays. Only Aaron Judge could take much solace from this encounter, cranking a brace of home runs off last-minute starter T.J. Zeuch.
The six-foot-seven right-hander was pressed into service because Ross Stripling reported right forearm tightness. Zeuch got the summons two hours before game time.
“It was a bit of a surprise, just tried to roll with it, go out there and give my team the best that I could,” he said.
His sinker was working well. His secondary pitches, not so much.
“My slider was a little bit big and a little flat. Changeup, just kind of pushing it a bit. The cutter I felt like I was getting on the side of it a little bit.”
It was a flat cutter over the middle of the plate that Judge turned on second-time around, leading off the fourth, which brought pitching coach Pete Walker to the mound for a chat. “I thought I was pretty good for the first three but then, with two outs in the fourth, I’ve got to find a way to get that third out without giving up the lead,” said Zeuch, hard on himself. “It’s just inexcusable on my part. Luckily my team bailed me out today and I’m really appreciative of that.”
The Yankees had three runs on three hits in that. But the Toronto bullpen followed up tidily, with five innings of one-hit relief.
Biggio wasted a triple in the fourth when he took an 18-wheeler turn at third base, couldn’t get back to the bag and got hung up, caught in a rundown. In the eighth, the Jays had the bases loaded with no outs but could convert only one run, making it 4-4.
Alejandro Kirk had tied it 1-1, back in the second, with — drum roll here — his first hit of the season, simultaneously his first home run.
“When I hit that homer, it was a huge relief for me,” the catcher admitted. “Thanks to God I got the first hit today and it was a homer.”
The Jays left immediately afterward for an 11-day, nine-game road swing that begins Thursday in Kansas City.
If Montoyo knows who his starter will be, he’s not saying. Depends on how Stripling is feeling. Could be an opener and bullpen day. Steven Metz will definitely not be moved up a day, said the skipper.
The Jays could even call up Anthony Kay, given the sketchy state of the rotation.
Hey, why the heck not?
Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno
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