Take a look at this sample of swings, starting with a third-inning doubleheader Friday night at the Texas Rangers, in which he spun a 90.7-mph swing from Dane Dunning and left it 411 feet at 107.7 mph from wall of the central court. It follows a fourth base hit Saturday at 111.4 mph off a 92.9 mph sinker down and away from John King. That’s a first-time double he also hit at 111.4 mph on Sunday against a 92.4 mph cutter down and through Martin Perez. Finally, some release for the Toronto Blue Jays slugger in Wednesday’s 5-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays when he opened up on Drew Rasmussen’s 95.5 mph quadruple and launched it 363 feet at 98.3 mph for his first homer from August 30 and second. in the last 26 games. Each swing did damage on a pitch in the bottom third of the strike zone, the area where opponents most often try to attack him and where contact regularly produces the ground balls that have become such a frequent talking point. If Guerrero starts crushing there, good luck pitchers. “It just depends on what pitches he delivers,” interim manager John Snyder said before the game. “Whenever a player is, quote/unquote pressing, those decisions become a little bit wider, if you will. I don’t think it’s anything mechanical right now when I watch him. He’s just where they put him, wanting to do well. I’d love to see him take a walk and then swing at a hanging slider and knock it out or hit it in the gap. There you somehow see that he is back. He wants to help. He wants to be a big part of the team. Just slowing it down and really hunting his specific zone is going to be what it takes.” Of course, making opponents pay when they throw him is another avenue to force them up in the zone, where he can end up getting those dangling sliders and drawing more walks. It’s clear that teams feel that dropping him is the best way to go. So the Rays approached him on Wednesday. With a 52 percent home run rate, up nearly 7 percent from last year, opponents have contained him much better than last season. It’s worth noting that Guerrero is still among the top 30 hitters in the majors, and the reason he feels like he’s having a down season is because of the heights he reached a year ago. If that’s his floor, it’s a pretty damn elite floor. “Obviously they’re bringing him in very intentionally from Tampa and some other teams,” Snyder said. “He really focuses on getting the ball up in the strike zone. We all see the results when the ball lands in the strike zone where the ball leaves his bat. This is a conscious thing he is working on. But if Vlad starts, we’re talking about an elite player and one of the best in the game. Combine that with what Bo (Bichette) is doing what he’s doing and that’s really good for us. With a hitter like that, you have to be patient and know he’s going to do his thing.” Guerrero’s 28th homer of the season gave the Blue Jays (81-62) a 1-0 lead in the first inning and lifted them to a third win over the four-out Rays (79-63), who fell 1.5 games back in wild card match. The all-star first baseman brought home the second run of the game on a fielder’s choice in the second and Bichette followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0, while RBI singles by Santiago Espinal in the fourth and Raimel Tapia in the sixth they pushed the lead to 5-0. That was all a lot for Ross Stripling, who continued his remarkable season with another 6.1 innings of terrific baseball, keeping the Rays under his thumb throughout. He allowed three hits, one of them a Harold Ramirez homer to open the seventh, and left before facing the enemy Manuel Margot, who doubled the second, third time.
