Vladimir Guerrero hits 3 home runs, Jays beat Nationals

Nationals 5 Blue Jays 9

Of course, we all figured that all the Jays' bats needed to get going was to face Max Scherzer. Baseball is so predictable.

It was Vladimir Guerrero’s night. Three home runs and seven RBI. Buck said that his dad never had a three-homer game in his Hall of Fame career. Junior hit a grand slam in the third inning and a solo homer in the fifth and then a two-run homer in the seventh. He hit into a double play his first time up but all four at-bats resulted in an exit velocity of over 100 MPH. He needed a three-run shot for the home run cycle.

We did manage a couple of runs in the fourth inning without Vlad’s help. Joe Panik led off with a double. After a Lourdes Gurriel ground out. Alejandro Kirk popped up a ball behind second. Second baseman Josh Harrison back-peddled (the wind was blowing out to right) and had it kick off his glove and past the right fielder, scoring Panik and allowing Kirk to get to third. A deep fly out by Cavan Biggio scored Kirk.

Vlad wasn’t the only one to have a good night with the bat:

• Cavan Biggio went 3 for 3. He had a bunt single to lead off the first and then two hard-hit singles. When he is hitting well, he makes it look so easy.
• Joe Panik had a double and walk. He’s been making contact.
• Kirk singled and got on base on that three-base error.

On the pitching side, it was one of those use everyone nights:

• Trent Thornton started, and if you ignore two at-bats by Trea Turner, he had a good night. But Turner started off the game with a home run and then hit another solo homer in the third. Thornton went 2.1, allowed 3 hits, 2 earned, no walks with 2 strikeouts. I thought they could have left him in longer (which is pretty much the theme of the season), but after Turner’s second homer, Charlie took him out.
• Tommy Milone didn’t have a good time. He gave up a solo homer in the third, then loaded the bases in the fourth, on a double, single, and walk, while getting just one out.
• Anthony Castro got out of the trouble with a double-play ball. In the fifth, he hit a batter and walked a batter, in between 2 strikeouts.
• Tim Mayza got the last out of the fifth.
• The sixth was Joel Payamps (who Buck again called Payamps) turn. He gave up a single but got three flyouts. But he gave up a 2-run homer in the seventh, getting just one out.
• Tyler Chatwood got two strikeouts to get out of the seventh and had two more strikeouts in the eighth. He got four outs and 3 were strikeouts.
• Rafael Dolis got the ninth, even with the four-run lead. He made relatively quick work of the Nationals.

We had a good night with the gloves too. Bo Bichette had a bad throw to first, but Vlad scooped it nicely. In the ninth he bounced another to Vlad, but that was on purpose, a nice bounce to the glove. Alejandro Kirk threw out a base stealer. And Lourdes made a couple of good catches.

Tomorrow we finish the two-game series with the Nationals.

Jays of the Day: Vlad (no kidding, .373), Kirk (.133, part of that is the error but I’m still giving it to him), Biggio (.113), and Castro (.194).

Suckage: Milone (-.194)

We had 688 comments in the GameThread. EMK19 led us to victory. Good job sir.