{"id":256040,"date":"2025-08-18T10:49:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T10:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/256040\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T10:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T10:49:18","slug":"vladimir-guerrero-jr-homers-as-max-scherzer-and-the-blue-jays-beat-the-cubs-2-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/256040\/","title":{"rendered":"Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homers as Max Scherzer and the Blue Jays beat the Cubs 2-1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning, helping Max Scherzer and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1 on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Guerrero\u2019s big hit off Matthew Boyd lifted AL East-leading Toronto to the series victory. It was the 20th homer of the season for the All-Star slugger.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Scherzer (3-2) pitched seven-plus innings while improving to 6-2 in 12 career starts against the Cubs. He permitted one run and five hits.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Hoffman handled the ninth for his 27th save in 32 chances. Toronto improved to 40-20 at home.<\/p>\n<p>Boyd (11-6) allowed two hits in seven innings. He struck out five and walked one.<\/p>\n<p>Boyd walked Davis Schneider to begin the seventh. Ernie Clement followed with a sacrifice bunt before Guerrero lined an 0-2 pitch 402 feet to left-center.<\/p>\n<p>The Cubs had just one hit off Scherzer before Michael Busch went deep with one out in the sixth for his 24th homer.<\/p>\n<p>Promoted from Triple-A Iowa before the game, Cubs prospect <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/cubs-caissie-amaya-90117d9ce5e317578d08400b5fad8926\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Owen Caissie;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Owen Caissie<\/a> made his major league debut about 30 miles east of his birthplace in Burlington, Ontario. He went 0 for 4 with a strikeout.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Key moment<\/p>\n<p>Scherzer exited after Matt Shaw\u2019s leadoff double in the eighth. Brendon Little came on and walked pinch-hitter Seiya Suzuki before both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Little departed after striking out Ian Happ and Kyle Tucker. Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez fanned Carson Kelly to end the threat.<\/p>\n<p>Key stat<\/p>\n<p>The Blue Jays are a major league-best 24-12 in interleague play.<\/p>\n<p>Up next<\/p>\n<p>Cubs: RHP Colin Rea (9-5, 4.09 ERA) is scheduled to start Friday against Pirates RHP Braxton Ashcraft (3-2, 3.19 ERA).<\/p>\n<p>Blue Jays: RHP Chris Bassitt (11-6, 4.18 ERA) is expected to start Friday against Rangers RHP Jacob deGrom (10-5, 2.86 ERA).<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/MLB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/apnews.com\/MLB;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/apnews.com\/MLB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning, helping Max Scherzer and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,15154,1208,34,24,82,158,13860,6130,36,403,380,29,522,2000,381,37,4,9677,10,105,2539,1548,282,70,2553,7966],"class_list":{"0":"post-256040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-bluejays","11":"tag-braxton-ashcraft","12":"tag-brendon-little","13":"tag-carson-kelly","14":"tag-chicago-cubs","15":"tag-chris-bassitt","16":"tag-colin-rea","17":"tag-davis-schneider","18":"tag-ernie-clement","19":"tag-ian-happ","20":"tag-jacob-degrom","21":"tag-jeff-hoffman","22":"tag-kyle-tucker","23":"tag-matt","24":"tag-matthew-boyd","25":"tag-max-scherzer","26":"tag-michael-busch","27":"tag-mlb","28":"tag-owen-caissie","29":"tag-pirates","30":"tag-seiya-suzuki","31":"tag-seranthony-dominguez","32":"tag-seventh-inning","33":"tag-toronto","34":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","35":"tag-torontobluejays","36":"tag-vladimir-guerrero"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115049383359734717","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}