Appearing in 108 of his team’s 115 games (94 per cent) in this trying 2026 is by no means a poor number. But it needs to be contextualized against the franchise player’s history of posting — from 2020 through 2025, he appeared in 852 of the Blue Jays’ 870 regular-season games (98 per cent), with 156 being his previous low for a full year — and there must be some link between the physical issues that have caused to miss more games than ever and his stunning lack of production.
Guerrero looked very uncomfortable running out a groundball in the eighth inning of Tuesday night’s 7-2 win, slowing as he hit the bag and then bending over before hobbling off.
Manager John Schneider acknowledged Wednesday that his first baseman “has had some hamstring tightness and other stuff,” but explained sitting him by saying “with 17 in a row, today’s kind of just a day off, just watching him (Tuesday) and just giving him a blow against a really good starting pitcher (in Hunter Brown), trying to get as many lefties in there as we can.”
Guerrero’s previous missed games this year were all directly tied to acute ailments.
He missed games May 25 and 26 after a 92.1 m.p.h. sinker from Mitch Keller struck the inside of his right elbow.
Lower back tightness cost him games June 13, 14 and 30 while he sat July 29 due to some right hamstring tightness suffered the previous nights. With the Blue Jays not only in the middle of 17 games in 17 days, but also on the back half of 30 outings in 31 days, there are precious few days for him, or others, to do any sort of healing.
Asked if another day off Thursday afternoon in Chicago, when the Blue Jays play a makeup game against the Cubs, might make some sense for Guerrero, Schneider hedged.
“Everyone, but especially him, he wants to be out there, he wants to be contributing more than he is. I’ll talk to him (Wednesday) as the day goes and when we get into Chicago,” Schneider said.
Guerrero’s determination to stay on the field is important from a wider perspective, as his actions as franchise cornerstone set a standard. By showing up, good or bad, no matter that he’s struggling through easily the worst season of his career, it establishes that as the expectation for others.
But players of his ilk also sometimes need to be saved from themselves and the way he moved Tuesday, on the heels of his back and hamstring issues, make it at least reasonable to consider a longer breather to get him on steadier footing, especially given the extra work he’s doing to pull out of his funk at the plate.
The balance there “is a delicate one,” said Schneider. “We’re talking about one of the most important guys on our team. I always feel good with him in the lineup, his presence and what he can do, what he has done for a long time. I’ll just continue to talk to him and see what he thinks is best for him. He’s got a pretty good feel for what’s best for him and what’s the best for the team. But this is a big boy league, you know what I mean? If you’re feeling good enough to go and you can go help us, we want you to do that. But I’ll continue to talk to him and see how he’s doing.”
Taillon’s debut: Jameson Taillon made a good first impression in his Blue Jays debut, allowing three runs over four innings while seeing a slight uptick in his fastball velocity and getting 16 swinging strikes, with at least two misses on each of his six pitches.
“My command was not what it typically is, but the stuff was pretty good and sharp,” he said. “I just need to dial in the command going forward.”
His fastball, averaging 91.8 m.p.h. this season, sat 92.5 and topped out at 94.4. He got four whiffs with his cutters and three with his curveball and the Blue Jays have some ideas for how to better optimize his repertoire, a process he started against the Astros.
“I’ve adjusted the pitch mix a little bit. I’ve made some tweaks to some grips and the way I’m throwing some things,” he said. “It was good to see that show up and the fastball velocity might have been a tick up, too, which is kind of encouraging.”
Ernie delivers: Ernie Clement ended an 0-for-14 slump in dramatic fashion leading off the 10th inning, when he pummelled Bennett Sousa’s first pitch fastball 391 feet to left field to put the Blue Jays ahead 5-3. The homer was his first since July 12 and comes amid a difficult nine-game stretch in which he’s just 5-for-34.
“Tough stretch for quite some time,” he acknowledged. “I’ve grinded, I’ve got a hit here and there and finally it was just like, there’s only so much grinding you can do while you feel like (crap). In the last few games, it’s been super frustrating. But I think separating offence and defence is so important. I’m happy with how I’ve found a way to help the team. But I’ve swung the bat like (crap), it’s been terrible, just an easy out, first-pitch groundouts, just awful. You keep plugging along and try to do the little things as best you can to help the boys.”
Clement’s homer, silencing a crowd of 27,751 at Daikin Park, was the second of the game for the Blue Jays, marking just the third time they’ve hit multiple homers since the all-star break. They erased a 3-0 deficit in the sixth when Myles Straw broke up Hunter Brown’s no-hit bid with a double and scored on Kazuma Okamoto’s RBI single, which was followed by Jesus Sanchez’s two-run homer.
“Especially against a good pitcher who’s in a good groove, (power) changes the game quickly and you’re always one swing away in extra innings,” said Schneider. “But for Sanchez, on a 3-0 pitch to get the head out, it just changes the game quickly. We’ve been looking for that for the entire season. Usually when you get a couple (homers) good things happen.”
The Blue Jays, now 54-61, have won three consecutive series for the first time since April 20-29 against the Angels, Guardians and Red Sox.
Lee’s wild day: Recalled from triple-A Buffalo in the morning, Chase Lee was an unlikely candidate to pitch the 10th with Yordan Alvarez leading off, but there he was to close out the Blue Jays’ win. The two-inning start in Tuesday’s 7-2 loss from Trey Yesavage, who was placed on the injured list with left knee inflammation before the game, along with the toll of this current run of 17 games in 17 days, left the bullpen thin and closer Louis Varland was needed to pitch the ninth after Tyler Rogers handled the eighth and Mason Fluharty the seventh following two innings from Spencer Miles.
Lee needed a spectacular play from Nathan Lukes and Andres Gimenez after Alvarez ripped a ball into the right-field corner, but he got the job done to cap a wild day with his first big-league save.
“I got a phone call about 11:30 (Tuesday) night,” relayed Lee. “Once I got my bag packed, I probably got to bed at 1, had a 4:30 Uber to the airport, so pretty early. I had a connection in Detroit (from Buffalo), so my first flight was 6 and I landed in Houston at 10:30 local time. Straight to the stadium, changed clothes, went outside and did what I needed for the pre-game stuff. …
“That was the first true, get three-outs-you-win-the-game situation that I’ve been able to pitch in. That was fun.”
Gimenez’s deke: Vital to Lee’s effort was the aforementioned work of Lukes and Gimenez after Alvarez ripped a single to the right-field wall, cutting the Blue Jays’ lead to 5-4.
Lukes quickly retrieved the ball, fired it to second as Alvarez was cruising in, unaware of how close the play was becoming as Gimenez faked him by standing nonchalantly as if there was no throw. At the last second, he slapped on a tag to get a crucial out and replay confirmed the call on the field, easing the leverage at bases empty, one out.
“That completely changed the dynamics of the game,” said Lukes. “Gime deked him, that’s the main reason why (Alvarez) didn’t slide. I don’t have an assist without Gime, he’s the reason why that play happened the way it did. It was awesome.”
Said Gimenez: “It was a really good play and an even a better throw by Lukes. If he didn’t make a good throw, I have no chance. It was right on the money.”
The fake “is a little trick that I learned when I was a little kid and I was trying to do it there,” Gimenez said. “But I think if (Alvarez) touches the base he was safe. His left foot was short to the base. So by the time he was trying to touch it with the right foot, I got the tag on.”
Gimenez wasn’t worried during the replay review since “I was talking with Alvarez to see how he feels and he told me he didn’t touch the base. So I was like, we probably have a chance. In the video you can see clearly he didn’t touch the base.”
Plays such as that one are why Lukes makes a point of throwing the ball in to second full throttle even “if someone a little faster was running the bases and I know there’s no chance. With someone not as fast, I know there’s a good opportunity. (Alvarez) hammered that ball. I got to it quickly, felt like I got to the throw pretty quickly. I love doing it. I love when a ball hits off the wall and I’m able to throw them out a second. It’s better than a diving catch. I love it.”
No Gaus on Thursday: Clement didn’t know that the Chicago Cubs had pushed Kevin Gausman back from starting Thursday’s makeup game, so when asked about seeing his former teammate so soon after the trade deadline, he said, “that is too soon.”
“I can’t believe that they’re doing that to us, but it is what it is. He’s a great, great dude. He’s one of my favourite teammates I’ve ever had. And we’re going to compete our tails off against him,” added Clement.
Told that Gausman was no longer starting, Clement’s eyes lit up and he blurted out, “Oh, thank God. That would have been horrible. That’s why I was like, it’s too soon. I don’t want to face the guy that we just (traded), one of our boys. That’s terrible. It will be great to see him. I’m just glad we’re not facing him. That’s hilarious.”
