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| Hey guys it's Vladdy |
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s first home run of the night came on a Gerrit Cole slider that stayed up and didn't break that much ("a bit of a cookie," Arden Zwelling called it afterwards), and his third came on of a pretty good pitch from a pretty good pitcher, Jonathan Loáisiga, who doesn't give up all that many home runs (like at all). But it was definitely Vladdy's second of the game that was the most striking, in that Gerrit Cole's 98 MPH fastball was several inches off the plate inside, and there was nowhere near enough room for Vladdy to extend his arms even a little: he kept his hands in tight, though, got the barrel on the ball like it was no big deal (in context this was a very big deal), and hit it more than four hundred feet (his three home runs averaged 429ft on the night). It was the kind of pitch that you can reasonably expect to turn into a broken bat. "Jammed him," you would hear Buck Martinez say in what my old friend Bill describes as Buck's cartoon pelican voice (Bill says it with love), and that would be that. Except it wasn't! So that was the at-bat that really stuck with me. The one that seemed to really stick with Cole, though, was the 0-2 double to right, after which Cole tipped his cap to Vladdy before sighing visibly and doing whatever the exact opposite of tipping his cap is to himself (whatever Gerrit Cole's personal faults may be, I don't think "he's too easy on himself" is all that high among them [he was pretty funny about how a ten-minute ceremony on Opening Day threw him off in his first start though actually so maybe scrap that part? or no, don't scrap it, but qualify it]).
Oh yes also, in the middle of all of this, Vladimir Geurrero had his throwing hand stepped on on a close play at first after an offline throw Bo Bichette made but probably shouldn't have (a great effort to get in front of the ball but no chance to get the runner). As I was getting Evening Organized, so like before I had a chance to properly settle into the game, my daughter offered two Vladdy updates, maybe five minutes apart: i) Vladdy had his hand stepped on and there was blood all over his pants (it's bad) and ii) Vladdy just hit a two-run home run (come see). Two stitches, is the story, and this really does feel like it's going to be a story (front and back pages of a number of New York papers the next morning agreed).
And José Berríos looked pretty good! A whole lot better than his Opening Day start, which filled us with a great deal of sympathy (we were not mad about it). Until the back-to-back home runs to Rizzo and Judge, Berríos looked great, actually. The bullpen (Cimber, Garcia, Richards, Romano) did a fine job yet again. Vladdy ended the game catching a scorching liner with a runner on first and the tying run at the plate, as well he might. I think it's fair to say that this was the best game of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s young career, and I think it's also fair to say that he is unlikely to ever have a better one (because what would that consist of?), and so I am glad that he seemed to enjoy it as much as he did.
KS
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