Vlad Guerrero Jr. has his first big playoff moment as Blue Jays strike first in blowout of Yankees​on October 4, 2025 at 11:34 pm

It has become a date on the calendar to define Toronto Blue Jays baseball, good and bad.

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There was Oct. 4, 2016, the day Edwin Encarnacion rocked a three-run homer in the 11th inning of an AL wildcard game to send the Jays to a 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

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Then there was Oct. 4, 2023, a defining result for the wrong reasons, a 2-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins that sent the team spiralling downwards.

And now this: Oct. 4, 2025 in what had all the feel of a monumental breakthrough moment in the current era of Blue Jays baseball, a thorough and dominating 10-1 thrashing of their division rival New York Yankees.

Though it was a complete win in so many ways, let’s also call Saturday’s high-volume triumph the official playoff coming out party of the richest player in franchise history, Vlad Guerrero Jr.

It was the moment Blue Jays fans have been waiting for since the Montreal-born, Dominican-raised superstar signed that $500 million US contract in April.

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And boy did his first-inning home run on a brilliant early autumn day before a roaring sellout crowd of 44,655 at the Rogers Centre bring the house down.

The towering blast that easily cleared the wall in left field was the first post-season home run of his career and a significant tone setter for a hungry Jays team looking to validate their terrific first-place regular season. And best yet — in the now it allowed them to get the early upper hand in the opener of the best-of-five ALDS.

“He’s the face of our franchise and a big reason why we go, a big part of why we’re here,” said starter Kevin Gausman. “He’s the arch-nemesis for (the Yankees). What a night for him.”

Manager John Schneider, who has coached Guerrero since he was a teenager, saw something a little different as well. There were the hits — three of them — but also some stellar defence, most notably a one-man double play in the second.

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“There was a bit of a different feel about Vlad today,” Schneider said. “Where he is right now, where we are right now in the postseason was big for him.”

Guerrero has long said he lives for these moments, wanted them bad. The Jays were 0-for-6 in his three previous playoff appearances and all along he’s been craving the opportunity to have an impact in October.

So there it was, a breakthrough afternoon and early evening for a player who wears his heart on his sleeve and loves everything about playing baseball here.

“I would say the difference is this time around, everybody’s ready for the game,” Guerrero said of his team’s long-awaited potentially statement playoff win. “Everybody knows they have a job to do.”

Our takeaways from a not-soon-to-be-forgotten afternoon at the downtown dome:

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WHO SAW THIS COMING?

Schneider did.

The Jays manager said he had a long chat with Guerrero earlier in the week and detected signs some good things were coming at the plate. The two discussed how he was feeling at the plate and talked through some things.

“To hear him articulate what is right when he is right was really encouraging,” Schneider said prior to Game 1. “Watching him work the way he did was really encouraging. There’s very simple cures with him. I’ve seen him hit for 10 years so I gave him a little feedback with what I was seeing.”

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Central in their chats was Vlad’s ability to get the ball in the air like he is when he’s at his best. The towering shot to left field travelled 367 feet into the Jays bullpen with an exit velocity of 101.2 miles per hour.

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Guerrero also had a pair of singles on the day plus a sac fly RBI, a statement if there ever was one. Prior to his sensational Saturday — his first career multi-hit post-season game — he had three hits total in his 22 at-bats spread over six games.

GOOD AS GAUS

Prior to getting the Game 1 start, Kevin Gausman said he was “fired up” to get things rolling for his team in this is fourth season with the Jays.

And from the outset, the 34-year-old right-hander was up to the task until his final inning, anyway.

Feeding off the sellout crowd, which never let up, Gausman lived up to his walk-in song “Money” needing just 50 pitches through five shutout innings and entering the sixth having retired 10 Yankees hitters in a row.

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And then came some the high drama of a sixth inning in which the bases were loaded with nobody out and Aaron Judge at the plate — Gausman struck him out swinging — a sequence in which the Yankees incredibly managed just one run.

THE SCENE

The sellout crowd — the largest of the season — didn’t spend much time in their seats, especially when the Jays were at the plate and rallying.

They went crazy when Guerrero hit his homer and again in the second when Alejandro Kirk hit a solo homer off Yankees starter Luis Gil, attacking the first pitch he saw. With the party overflowing, they serenaded their beloved backstop when he added another solo shot in the eighth.

Waving their handout rally towels, the Jays lived up to the reputation that player after player has raved about. The hope was that with home field advantage through at least the ALCS, the Jays would build on an MLB best 55-27 regular-season home record.

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On one glorious day in franchise history, it sure felt like it.

“It’s huge,” Gausman said. “We’d lost seven straight in the post season. To win one at home in front of our fans that have been awesome all season was really special.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

The value of winning Game 1 cannot be underestimated for a team that was in desperate need of a post-season victory, their first since 2016 after exiting meekly in each of their previous three wildcard appearances.

And now they hold a critical upper hand in the best-of-five series against the Yankees, a victory that snapped an 0-for-7 playoff losing streak.

This series was always going to shape up as a dogfight and getting the early upper hand is critical. Now the Jays will look to baffle the Yanks with rookie starter Trey Yesavage. After that, the Jays have veteran Shane Bieber ready for Game 3 in New York on Tuesday.

“It’s one game, there’s a lot of series ahead of us,” said Schneider, whose team has extended a four-game winning streak to end the season into the playoffs. “But it’s nice. I feel a lot of fulfillment for the guys who have grinded and put in a lot of work and had some good years and not so great finishes to it.”

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