As Guerrero and Tatis reconnect, Rodriguez dominates as Blue Jays beat Padres

SAN DIEGO – A post-batting-practice feast awaited Vladimir Guerrero Jr. within the customer’s clubhouse at Petco Park, courtesy of Fernando Tatis Jr.

“Dominican meals, clearly,” stated the San Diego Padres right-fielder. “The whole lot that we prefer to eat. Hopefully he can get pleasure from.”

This was no random deal with. The 2 childhood buddies have been sending over meals for each other for years. Since Guerrero and his Toronto Blue Jays are the Padres’ visitors this weekend, Tatis was on the hook.

“He has to convey the meals. He has to,” stated Guerrero. “It’s one thing we at all times did within the minors. It’s like custom. If he involves Toronto, I’ve to search out Dominican meals to convey him.”

The friendship between the 2 25-year-olds dates again to their days as toddlers, when dads Vladimir Sr. and Fernando Sr. spent the 2001-03 seasons as teammates with the Montreal Expos. They’d romp round Olympic Stadium, making the place their very own, “working the bases, enjoying on the sector, enjoying within the household room on the finish of the video games,” stated Tatis.

“He was at all times like me,” stated Guerrero. “He at all times watched baseball, he at all times performed baseball. He at all times got here to the sector early along with his dad like me.”

These bonds, strengthened alongside the best way as they went from children tagging together with their baseball star dads to prospects on the rise to second-generation all-stars, make each big-league assembly between all of the extra particular.

This time Guerrero, with an RBI single and two hits, and his Blue Jays received the higher of Tatis, who hit his sixth homer of the season, and the Padres on Friday with a 5-1 victory. 

Yariel Rodriguez, making his second big-league begin, was once more spectacular in 4 innings of labor, placing out seven whereas permitting only one stroll and three hits, Tatis’ drive on a dangling slider amongst them. 

His fastball was once more a weapon, sitting at 94.7 m.p.h. and topping out at 97.1, and he paired it nicely with a slider the Padres missed seven instances on 17 swings. However he additionally used his splitter much more usually than he did throughout his debut, throwing it 14 instances in his 83 pitches, with the 5 swings on it producing two swinging strikes, two foul balls and a Jurickson Profar single.

“This time I wished to combine my pitches slightly bit greater than the primary time,” Rodriguez stated by way of interpreter Hector Lebron. “First time I used to be slightly bit tense, you possibly can say. I used to be extra relaxed this time. I threw my sport at the moment.”

The Blue Jays consider the splitter has an opportunity to be pivotal for him, particularly as soon as he regains the texture for it after largely shelving it whereas pitching out the bullpen in Japan.

How a lot additional the Blue Jays push Rodriguez past the 83 pitches he threw Friday is value watching given how carefully the right-hander’s workload is being monitored. Bowden Francis took the reins from him within the fifth and threw two shutout innings earlier than Tim Mayza delivered a clear seventh, Yimi Garcia one other dominant eighth and Jordan Romano dealt with the ninth, locking down a fifth win in six outings.

“It’ll be tempting (to maintain extending Rodriguez), for positive,” stated supervisor John Schneider. “Plenty of it is determined by how he feels and the way he’s responding, too. We don’t need to get too carried away with it. I believe 85 or so might be the place we’ll land. However that may change. He’s form of in unchartered waters there for 83 pitches at the moment, no matter it was. But when he’s feeling good and throwing good, we’re going to proceed to experience him.”

Guerrero’s RBI single got here throughout a four-run second off hybrid knuckleballer Matt Waldron, sandwiched by Kevin Kiermaier’s two-run double and Justin Turner’s run-scoring single. Turner’s solo shot to straight-away centre within the first opened the scoring and although the Blue Jays didn’t do harm from the third onwards, they nonetheless stored the warmth up on Padres pitchers, the best way they’ve all through their latest run.

“The standard of at-bats has considerably spiked,” Turner stated. “One by way of 9, making guys work exhausting, not giving outs away, the two-strike battles and foul balls. Clearly, it actually stood out that sport in opposition to (Carlos) Rodon. Having him throw 100 pitches in 4 innings was fairly outstanding. We made (Marcus) Stroman work, made that man tonight work. Anytime you get the starter out of the sport within the fourth, fifth inning and also you get to face their longer guys, that’s a reasonably good signal we’re going to have some success.”

Padres pitchers did maintain Guerrero from hitting the kind of lasers Tatis remembers from their showcase days as 13-year-olds at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

“Everyone was speaking already how you might see it,” Tatis stated. “That was (when) he actually marked himself, separated him from the youngsters, having grown-man energy.”

Going by way of so many formative moments collectively all through their lives created enduring hyperlinks between them, Guerrero stated. 

“You look again and also you say, ‘Oh, we have been collectively as little children, now we’re within the big-leagues, not on the identical workforce, however we play on the identical area,’” stated Guerrero. “That makes me suppose again on how grateful I’m to his dad, my dad that we’re right here collectively at the moment.”

Being on totally different groups, in several leagues, on reverse ends of the continent means they don’t see one another usually in season. They textual content and speak usually, although, encouraging and pushing each other.

“Our fathers was collectively, kicking it round, having a great time within the sport of baseball and now that they handed it all the way down to us,” stated Tatis. “It’s the identical sort of vitality, the identical household, similar individuals from the identical nation … residing the dream proper now.”

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