HOUSTON – As the Toronto Blue Jays wrapped up an emotional three days deep in the heart of Texas with a 5-4, 10-inning victory over the Houston Astros, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. missed his seventh game of the season to establish an unwanted career high.

Appearing in 108 of his team’s 115 games – 94 per cent – so far in this trying 2026 is by no means a poor number. But it needs to be contextualized against the franchise player’s history – from 2020 through 2025, he appeared in 852 of the Blue Jays’ 870 regular-season games, with 156 being his previous low – and there must be some link between the physical issues that have caused him to miss more games than ever and his stunning lack of production.

Guerrero looked very uncomfortable running out a groundball in the eighth inning of Tuesday night’s 7-2 win, slowing as he hit the bag and then bending over in discomfort before hobbling off.

Manager John Schneider acknowledged Wednesday that his first baseman “has had some hamstring tightness and other stuff,” but explained sitting him by saying “with 17 in a row, today's kind of just a day off, just watching him (Tuesday) and just giving him a blow against a really good starting pitcher (in Hunter Brown),........

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