The Toronto Blue Jays have been on a roll in recent weeks, but Monday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates presented a significant bump in the road.
The Blue Jays lost their second straight game, but more critically, they lost franchise slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a hamstring injury in the middle of the matchup.
“Guerrero left the contest in the fifth inning when Ty France pinch hit in his place,” Mitch Bannon reported for The Athletic. “The franchise first baseman felt hamstring tightness in the third frame after doing the splits to field a throw from across the diamond, manager John Schneider said.”
After the game, Schneider was quick to downplay any serious concerns about the injury with a three-word message: “It’s just tightness,” the manager said, according to the Associated Press.
But even a brief absence for Guerrero would be a blow to the team. After signing a $500 million extension this season, he’s slashing a stellar .298/.396/.498 in his fifth-consecutive All-Star campaign. The Blue Jays are likely to slot France in at first base while Guerrero is sidelined, though Schneider seemed optimistic that would be a brief substitution.
“We can’t afford to lose him for an extended period of time, so (pulling him out) was partially precautionary, too,” the manager said of Guerrero, per the Associated Press. “Hopefully, he’s good to go in the next day or two. He’s obviously really important to our lineup.”
The team has scheduled an MRI for the franchise first baseman and will have a better sense of the injury when the results come back. In the meantime, the team is hoping he can bounce back from what appears to be some relatively benign hamstring tightness.
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