Vladimir Guerrero Jr. dropped 42 kilos after an underwhelming 2020.
He’s hoping much less might be extra — and the 22-year-old nonetheless appears like a heavy hitter.
Guerrero and Randal Grichuk homered off Domingo German within the Yankee right-hander’s return from a home violence ban, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Yankees, 3-1, Sunday to win a season-opening sequence towards their A.L. East rival.
A slimmed-down Guerrero had a success in all three video games, together with an opposite-field shot main off the second inning towards German.
“He makes the lineup a lot better,” Manager Charlie Montoyo mentioned. “That’s what we think could happen. That was a beautiful swing to go opposite field.”
It was Guerrero’s first homer of the season after he hit .262 with 9 homers in 60 video games final yr. The son of the Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, Guerrero Jr. went on a weight loss plan over the winter, and teammates have remarked on his vitality this spring.
“I feel a lot better this year,” he mentioned by way of translator.
Grichuk wrapped a two-run drive across the left-field foul pole two batters after Guerrero, serving to Toronto take two of three.
“We were coming in with confidence,” Montoyo mentioned. “It’s even better now.”
T.J. Zeuch pitched 4 scoreless innings for the Blue Jays, and left-hander Ryan Borucki (1-0) acquired two outs to escape a jam within the sixth. Julian Merryweather acquired his second save with an ideal ninth.
German (0-1) allowed three runs over three innings in his first look since Sept. 18, 2019. He missed all of final season serving an 81-game ban below Major League Baseball’s home violence coverage after an incident involving his girlfriend, with whom he has at the least one little one.
German, 28, was applauded by followers in proper subject when he bolted out of the dugout for warm-ups about 35 minutes earlier than first pitch and acquired extra cheers after finishing a 12-pitch first inning.
German repeatedly left the ball up in the course of the second — together with on each homers — and was pulled after the third with 68 pitches. He was charged with 4 hits, a stroll and a wild pitch whereas placing out two.
“It was very exciting to be back on a major league mound and compete,” German mentioned by way of translator. “I wanted to stay calm and take it all in. Definitely had some issues in the game today, but overall, exciting.”
Right-hander Michael King adopted German with six scoreless innings of one-hit ball. King retired his ultimate 15 batters, baffling Toronto with a five-pitch combine. He walked one and struck out three on 68 pitches. He is the primary Yankees reliever with at the least six innings and no multiple hit since Bob Shirley on Sept. 21, 1986.
“He’s put himself in a good spot to be a real contributor,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone mentioned of the 25-year-old.
Bo Bichette grew to become the quickest Blue Jays participant to attain 100 profession hits, getting there with a first-inning double in his 78th recreation. Alex Rios had wanted 85 video games.
Zeuch threw 63 pitches and allowed three hits and a stroll with one strikeout. Right-hander Trent Thornton gave up a run within the fifth and was pulled within the sixth after shedding a pair mph on his fastball. He allowed Gleyber Torres’ double earlier than Borucki retired Jay Bruce and Gary Sánchez to finish the inning.
Brett Gardner had run-scoring groundout within the fifth for the Yankees.
