Toronto Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had an RBI double in his return to the lineup Wednesday.
Guerrero started at third and had three at-bats in the game, a 7-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Guerrero — who turns 24 on Thursday — injured his right knee running bases during a Grapefruit League game on March 3. He withdrew from the Dominican Republic's World Baseball Classic roster shortly after but always maintained the injury was short-term. In all, he was out of the spring-training lineup for 11 days.
“I'm going to take it easy. I'm not going to try to rush things,” Guerrero said on March 5 through interpreter Hector Lebron. “I'll keep working on getting my treatment and when my knee says it's ready, then I'll be ready."
On the weekend, Sportsnet's Hazel Mae shared footage of Guerrero running bases and on Monday manager John Schneider said the slugger was nearing a return.
"He said he felt great, which is awesome," Schneider said. "Hopefully, he's running the bases a lot this year so he has to keep doing it. But, yeah, probably in the next few days you can probably see him in there, as long as he feels good after the workout today."
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