Toronto Blue Jays Vladimir Guerrero Jr. talks to reporters at Yankee Stadium in New York, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. entered this season with a .292 average in 89 regular-season games against the Yankees, whom he first homered against on June 5, 2019 in Toronto off Zack Britton.
After 13 more regular season games in 2025 when the Blue Jays beat the Yankees for first place in the AL East for the first time since 2015, Guerrero’s career average is .302 against the Yankees.
Throw in the 6-for-9 Guerrero produced in the utter domination in the first two games of the Division Series in Toronto, he is a major Yankee killer and one of those where it does not matter what pitch he sees at least in the first two games where the Blue Jays outscored the Yankees 23-8 with four of those runs coming on the first grand slam in Toronto’s postseason history.
“This weekend it was nice for him and for other guys that have been here in the postseason — postseason hasn’t gone great for the time they’ve been here — to kind of have a few moments to where it kind of says, okay, hopefully this year is a little bit different,” said John Schneider, who managed Guerrero in Double-A New Hampshire in 2018.
“Yeah, there’s a little bit of extra emotion, little bit of extra meaning, if you will, that Vlad who is here for a long period of time, was right in the middle of it.
After going 3-for-22 in his first six postseason games, Guerrero is joining the likes of other great players to dominate the Yankees in a Division Series.
In 1995, Edgar Martinez batted .571 in Seattle’s classic five-game comeback. Two years later Omar Vizquel batted .500 to help Cleveland and in 2002 where virtually everyone hit for the Angels in a four-game series, Adam Kennedy was .500 hitter.
The next team to beat the Yankees in the division series was the 2005 Angels, who saw Bengie Molina hit .444. The first team to take a 2-0 lead on the Yankees were the 2007 Cleveland Guardians and Jhonny Peralta hit .467 in a four-game victory.
The next team to beat the Yankees were the 2011 Tigers and in the final games of his career Magglio Ordonez batted .455 in a five-game series that ended with Alex Rodriguez making the last out.
In 2018, the 108-win Red Sox moved the Yankees out of the way in four games on their way to a fourth title since 2004 and J.D. Martinez batted .357.
Of course, Guerrero is not the only Yankee-killer in the ugly two-game sampling which showed how the Yankees left too many games on the table and lost homefield advantage by not getting to 95 wins. Guerrero’s impressive display was part of Toronto hitting .392 after hitting an MLB-best .265 and .263 in winning eight of 13 games against the Yankees.
New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge talks with Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. during the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
When a team is down in a series, they tend to positive past achievements.
The Yankees can point to how they played in winning two of three last month from Toronto and sweeping an April doubleheader while the Knicks were playing the Pistons in the first round.
There also is a body of work of 15 games by the Blue Jays it may not bode well, especially against Guerrero, who batted .373 in the regular-season against the Yankees and .455 at Yankee Stadium this season.
“Obviously he’s a guy that hits the ball incredibly hard, has a good idea of the strike zone, has power when he gets kind of in that mode too a little bit,” manager Aaron Boone said Monday. “Obviously he’s hit a couple balls out of the ballpark but also shown his kind of bat-to-ball skills where he can kind of spray it around the yard too. He’s certainly hurt us so far, and hopefully we can contain that a little bit tomorrow.
This season’s dominance seemed like a slow build-up. The Yankees were obviously aware of Guerrero’s ability to dominate but this year was the first time since his arrival the Blue Jays beat the Yankees for a division title.
Guerrero began his tenure against the Yankees by hitting .239 with one homer in Toronto and nine RBI in 17 games in 2019 and the Blue Jays were 8-11 in those games. In the pandemic season when Guerrero played home games in Buffalo, Guerrero hit .385 with two homers in 10 RBIs and the Jays split those games.
In 2021, the Yankees tediously reached the playoffs and beat the Blue Jays by one game on the last day of the season. Some of their games might have gone better if they could fare well against the Blue Jays.
The Blue Jays won 11 of 19 meetings in 2021, including eight of 10 in New York, highlighted by a rare four-game sweep right after Labor Day. During that four-game sweep, Guerrero was 6-for-17 with three homers, including one where he reached 40, becoming the youngest player in Toronto’s history to do so.
In 2022, the Blue Jays threatened the Yankees slightly in August and finished seven games back of first place. Toronto won three of four in August 2022 when Boone famously pounded his hand on the podium and Guerrero batted .260 as the Jays won eight of the 19 meetings.
In 2023, the Yankees caught a slight break when divisional matchups were reduced to 13 games for the first time since 2000. The Yankees were an 82-win disaster while the Blue Jays were an 89 wild-card team with six wins against the Yankees.
Against the Yankees, Guerrero had his worst numbers by hitting .194 but it was also during that season when he said he would never play for the Yankees.
In 2024, Guerrero experienced his first losing season since 2019 as the Blue Jays stumbled to 74 wins. Still Guerrero foreshadowed things for this season by hitting .373 with five homers and was a .320 hitter in the Bronx.
This season began with Guerrero entering at as the most discussed pending free agent. It was a fact widely known in New York when Mets fans cheered him at their home opener and the Yankees signed Paul Goldschmidt as a stopgap ahead of possibly getting the slugger to change his mind.
Instead, the free agent talk quickly disappeared when Guerrero signed a 14-year, $500 million contract on April 9 and then helped the Blue Jays overcome a slow start, take the AL East lead in July and win the division title for the first time since 2015.
Right now, the Yankees are on the verge of elimination and their quest at consistently getting Guerrero out may be forced to wait until next season.
Disclaimer: This news has been automatically collected from the source link above. Our website does not create, edit, or publish the content. All information, statements, and opinions expressed belong solely to the original publisher. We are not responsible or liable for the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of any news, nor for any statements, views, or claims made in the content. All rights remain with the respective source.