No sport will humble you quite like baseball. Everyone, from bench depth to heart-of-the-order kingpins, will take their lumps eventually. That includes Blue Jays All-Star Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who made some unfortunate history against the Yankees, following up a three-homer masterpiece Wednesday night with one of the worst games of his career in Thursday’s series finale, achieving the dreaded “golden sombrero” by striking out in each of his four at-bats. Per Elias Sports Bureau, that had never happened before, at least since MLB began tracking strikeouts in 1910.
Go figure. One night, Guerrero can look like the second coming of Barry Bonds. The next, he’s hacking like a beer-league softball player after his fifth drink. As John Sterling would say, “That’s baseball, Suzyn.”
That’s why it’s important, in a game where success is so fleeting (getting a hit in 30 percent of your at-bats will put you on the fast track to Cooperstown), to never get too high or too low, understanding that failure comes with the territory. Mike Trout, regarded as perhaps the greatest player of his generation, struck out an AL-worst 184 times in 2014, the same year he won his first MVP award.
Over the course of 162 games, Guerrero will inevitably endure his share of clunkers, but when the Jays slugger is locked in, all you can do is tip your cap like Gerrit Cole did Wednesday night.
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