UPDATE: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. appears to have avoided the worst after leaving Sunday’s game against the Pirates. The Blue Jays announced that Guerrero underwent X-rays after being hit on the inside of his right elbow, and the imaging came back negative for a fracture. His current diagnosis is a right elbow contusion.
The Blue Jays’ Sunday afternoon against the Pirates took another bad turn when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. left the game after being hit by a pitch, adding a second major health concern to an already unsettled day for Toronto.
Guerrero was removed after taking the pitch, with the Blue Jays turning to the bench as the game continued. The club had not immediately announced the severity of the injury, but any exit involving Guerrero lands loudly for a Toronto lineup built around his bat, plate presence and ability to anchor traffic in the middle of the order.
The timing made it worse because Toronto had already lost Dylan Cease earlier in the afternoon. Cease entered Sunday at 3-2 with a 2.98 ERA, 84 strikeouts and a 1.22 WHIP, then left after 4.2 innings, two earned runs, four hits, one walk and eight strikeouts on 87 pitches. Pittsburgh got solo homers from Spencer Horwitz and Oneil Cruz, but Cease’s swing-and-miss was still there, which made the early exit feel more concerning than the line.
Guerrero entered Sunday hitting .287 with 54 hits, 31 runs, three home runs, 22 RBI and a .750 OPS, and he had already reached base before leaving after the hit-by-pitch. Even with the power coming unevenly, he remains the middle-order anchor who lengthens innings and changes how pitchers work through Toronto’s lineup.
Now the Blue Jays are waiting on two updates. A game that began as a chance to finish a sweep has turned into a double injury watch, with Cease’s status and Guerrero’s condition carrying beyond the final score.
Here’s the video of the HBP:
