Vlad Jr. closing in on elusive 200 hit club in Jays loss

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The penultimate chapter in Yariel Rodriguez’s first big-league season was penned Saturday, a personal memoir of drama mixed in with moments of frustration.

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Officially, the end will arrive when the Blue Jays close out their 2024 disappointment at home next weekend. Unofficially, the Rodriguez story has just begun.

At times, the Cuban-born right-hander has shown he belongs in the starting rotation. At others, he has shown that perhaps a bulk relief role would be more fitting.

What isn’t in dispute is the investment management has committed to him.

In his 20th start of the season — a 3-2 Jays loss against the host Rays — twice Rodriguez led off the game’s early innings by issuing a walk, the first coming around to score with two outs in the second.

One inning later, Jonathan Aranda homered for the second time in as many games, a two-run shot that gave the Rays a 3-0 lead. On Friday, he took Jose Berrios deep on a solo blast, which stood as the game’s lone run.

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Y-Rod was pulled after four innings, his pitch count having reached 81 on the day. All three Tampa runs were charged to him after allowing four hits and three walks. He struck out three.

Still, it was a lack of timely hitting that would doom the Jays, who out-hit the Rays 9-7 but were just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

That one hit was a nubber with two outs in the fifth inning off the bat of Spencer Horwitz that could not have travelled more than 10 feet up the third-base line, but was enough to score Nathan Lukes from third

The Jays did have chances in the next two innings. Joey Loperfido doubled to left in the sixth and Alejandro Kirk added an RBI triple in the seventh — both with two outs — but were left stranded.

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HIT MAN

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In his first at-bat, Vlad Guerrero Jr. reached a career milestone when he fought off a nasty splitter down and away and sent it into right field for a two-out single.

It was his 189th hit of the season — a career-high. He would add two more in a 3-for-5 afternoon as he closes in on 200 for the season.

If Vladdy does reach 200 hits, he’d become just the sixth player in Jays history to accomplish the feat.
Guerrero also entered the day — again — one RBI shy of his second career 100 season.

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CAPTAIN KIRK

The more Kirk plays, the more one could see him shouldering a bigger load next season.

Since platoon-mate Danny Jansen was traded, Kirk has been hitting well, framing pitches and throwing out runners, though a couple of balls did elude him on Saturday.

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He has looked the part of an every-day catcher, but the biggest cloud hovering over him will be his physical stamina.

On Saturday, Kirk threw out his 25th base-runner of the season when he gunned down Brandon Lowe attempting to swipe second base in the first inning on a well-placed throw to the first-base side of the bag.

In the second, he kept an elevated fastball from Rdorigurez from going to the backstop with runners at the corners.
Kirk, meanwhile, brought a 13-game hit streak into the game, but waited until his fourth at-bat to extend it, launching his first major-league triple to score Horwitz.

The milestone ball would make its way into the Jays’ dugout.

It must be noted Kirk’s sharply hit ball eluded right-fielder Josh Lowe, who came in on the play but appeared to lose sight of it. The ball went all the way to the wall, allowing the not-so-fleet-of-foot Kirk to end up at third.

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AROUND THE BASES

Heading into the second game of their three-game series at the Trop, the Jays stood at 73-81, meaning they needed to win out over the final nine games of the schedule to avoid a losing season, which the franchise has not experienced since 2019 … With two outs in the seventh inning, Rays’ Yandy Diaz hit a high pop-up to the third-base side of the pitching mound. Guerrero, with a long way to come in, called off reliever Dillon Tate, who had just entered the game but over-ran over-ran the pop up. It would be ruled a hit and charged to Tate, his first with the Blue Jays.

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