TORONTO – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. fielded a Cedric Mullins chopper, signalled stop as he stepped into the baseline and then wrapped the Tampa Bay Rays centre-fielder in a bear hug while applying a tag for the fifth inning’s final out.

On the surface, it was a light moment of levity sure to loop regularly on an algorithm near you. Beneath it, though, the brief exchange was far more than that.

“I was talking with George (Springer) the other day, sometimes we put too many pressures on ourselves, we want to do everything,” the superstar first baseman said in the dugout Monday before an 8-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. “He told me, ‘Just go out there and be yourself, laughing, joking.’ Sometimes you put more pressure and then sometimes you change your body language and you don’t (realize it). So to me he always says go out there and have fun.”

That’s what Guerrero was doing in that fifth inning, even in the midst of another tough night, amid a tough stretch personally, within a tough opening to the season for the Blue Jays. At the unofficial quarter-point of 2026, they’re 18-23, and Guerrero is batting .300/.386/.387 with only two........

© Sportsnet