TORONTO — Reaching the 100-RBI plateau for the first time was a big deal to Edwin Encarnacion. It had always been a goal for the iconic Toronto Blue Jays slugger yet at times, as he struggled to find himself as a hitter in the early part of his career, he wondered if he’d be able to get there. But during his breakout 2012 season, “I trusted myself and after I did it one time, I said I’ve got to continue to do it.”
Encarnacion drove in 110 runs that year and then repeated the feat in five of the next six seasons and only an injury in 2014 that limited him to 98 RBIs prevented him from making it seven straight years in triple digits. “It’s not easy, man, it’s not easy,” he said, which is why he’s not only full of praise for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. this season reaching the mark for the second time, but also awed that the all-star first baseman is on the cusp of 200 hits, too.
“Hey, you can see in the game, you count with one hand how many guys do that,” said Encarnacion, one of the club’s special assistants who’s worked with Guerrero throughout the season. “What he’s been doing is impressive. I look in the mirror when I used to play, I know I got 100 RBIs, 30 homers, but 200 hits, too? Oh man, that’s crazy. It’s something the fans have to enjoy. The team, we’re very happy with where we are with Vladdy. He’s an unbelievable player, an unbelievable hitter.”
Guerrero collected hits No. 198 and 199 on singles in the first and eighth innings while adding RBI No. 103 on a sixth-inning sac fly Friday during the trudging mess of a 15-5 thumping from the Miami Marlins.
Jose Berrios got blitzed for six runs in three innings in a disappointing finale to an otherwise strong season and waiver-wire fliers Easton Lucas and Brett de Geus gave up four runs each amid a surplus of sloppy innings between the two clubs before a Rogers Centre crowd of 31,597.
Catcher Tyler Heineman pitched a scoreless ninth for the Blue Jays, joining Ernie Clement and Isiah Kiner Falefa as position players to take the mound this year. The offence went 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position while Leo Jimenez left the game in the seventh after jamming a knee.
It was that kind of night, starting with Berrios, who finished the season with a 3.60 ERA over 192.1 innings and a career-best 16 wins while making 32 starts for the sixth time since 2018, the pandemic-shortened 2020 season being the only exception.
“For sure I’ve been feeling strong, healthy, with rhythm to home plate,” Berrios said of the elements from this year he wants to carry over into 2025. “It’s hard when you lose and you know you’re not going anywhere (for a) post-season spot, but I need to work, no matter how, to focus on competing. Other than that, I feel great with my pitches, my rhythm on the mound and obviously, I had a lot of good games during the year.”
There isn’t much unfinished business for the Blue Jays in their first stake-less final weekend since 2019, but Guerrero’s quest for 200 hits, now just one away, ranks high on the list.
Should he get his base hit over the next two days, he’d become just the sixth player in franchise history to reach 200, joining Tony Fernandez, John Olerud, Paul Molitor, Shannon Stewart and Vernon Wells.
Of that group, only Wells added 30 homers and 100 RBIs in the same season, underlining just how special Guerrero’s season really is.
Heading into Friday’s play, only 14 players in the majors had reached 100 RBIs, although five others were at 95 or more with a weekend remaining. Among them, only Bobby Witt Jr. had 200 hits and only Shohei Ohtani, at 190 when the day began, was relatively close.
Encarnacion’s career high in hits was 158 in 2016, so he especially appreciates the totality of Guerrero’s production.
Factor in a slow April start and the flux around him in the lineup — of Guerrero’s 103 RBIs, he’s driven in himself 30 times and then the next most common runners he’s brought home are George Springer and Daulton Varsho 10 times apiece — and his season is all the more remarkable.
Not that Encarnacion ever doubted.
“I remember the first two months, he made an adjustment with his contact point and that’s when I realized, he’s coming. He needed to do that little adjustment, because he was putting the ball in play, but he just was a little bit late, and when he changed that I knew it was going to come,” he said. “Now he’s catching the ball a little bit more in front. When you’re ahead in the count, you want to get in front of the ball. That’s the adjustment he made and Vladdy is an unbelievable hitter. A natural hitter. I knew at the beginning of the season that things are going to change because he can do that.”