Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lastly hits first dwelling run at Toronto’s Rogers Centre in 2026, with six dwelling video games remaining

It took 75 video games into the Toronto Blue Jays’ 2026 dwelling schedule, however Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lastly hit a house run this season at Rogers Centre in Sunday’s 8-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Guerrero lastly homered within the fifth inning, the second of back-to-back dwelling runs off Orioles pitcher Trevor Rogers. After George Springer drove a changeup in the midst of the strike zone to the alternative area, Guerrero battled Rogers to a full rely. He then obtained a low-middle sweeper and swatted it over the left-field wall into the Blue Jays’ bullpen.

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Understandably, Guerrero savored the house run, taking 34 seconds to around the bases. The followers at Rogers Centre additionally chanted his title as he returned to the dugout and donned the Blue Jays’ purple dwelling run blazer. Guerrero then acknowledged the cheers with a curtain name.

Guerrero practically hit a house run in his second at-bat on Sunday, blasting a 397-foot drive to deep right-center area. But the ball hit off the highest of the wall for a double. The fly ball was blown in 11 ft by the wind, in response to Statcast (via MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson).

Overall, Guerrero had a wonderful day on the plate, batting 4-for-5 and ending a triple in need of the cycle.

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Kazuma Okamoto hit his thirty second dwelling run of the season, the fifth-highest whole within the AL and tenth in MLB. Dylan Cease pitched 5 innings, permitting one run on 4 hits. However, he additionally walked 4 batters to go along with his 9 strikeouts. Five relievers adopted him, throwing 4 scoreless innings.

At 75-75, the Blue Jays are one recreation behind the Cleveland Guardians (76-74) for the AL’s third wild-card playoff spot with 12 video games remaining within the common season.

The curiosity of Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s Toronto dwelling run drought

Last season, Guerrero hit 12 of his 23 homers at Rogers Centre. In 2021, when he hit 48 dwelling runs for the season and completed second in American League MVP balloting, 31 of these got here at dwelling.

During his eight MLB seasons, Guerrero has hit 71 homers in 462 profession video games at Rogers Centre. He additionally performed dwelling video games at Buffalo’s Sahlen Field and at TD Ballpark, the Blue Jays’ spring coaching ballpark in Dunedin, Florida, resulting from COVID journey restrictions in 2020 and 2021. Guerrero totaled 26 dwelling runs in 70 video games between these two stadiums.

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The dwelling run drought in Toronto is an element of a bigger thriller with Guerrero’s 2026 season. Known as a slugger befitting his cumbersome construct all through his profession, Sunday’s homer was solely his ninth of the 12 months. But he is making much less contact and never hitting the ball as exhausting, leading to decrease exit velocities and flatter launch angles, according to MLB.com’s Mike Petriello.

Prior to Sunday’s lengthy ball, the final time Guerrero went deep in Toronto was in Game 6 of the ALCS final 12 months versus the Seattle Mariners and starter Logan Gilbert. HIs final regular-season homer at Rogers Centre was greater than a 12 months in the past on Aug. 17, 2025, off Texas Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi.

The Blue Jays have six extra dwelling video games this season, with three in opposition to the Detroit Tigers this coming week and three with the Cincinnati Reds to finish the common season.