Vladimir Guerrero’s three-hit night helps Blue Jays to easy win over Brewers

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Some four hours before first pitch and long before the Rogers Centre roof was even cracked open, Vlad Guerrero Jr. was at work hitting home runs over the outfield wall.

He was back at it closer to first pitch, working through whatever ails his elite hitting skills.

And then when it came to swing at it for real, Guerrero drove in the first run in the Blue Jays cruise control 7-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

Baby steps, perhaps, but the first of three singles on the night was a positive direction for a slugger and his team, both aiming at getting pointed in the right direction.

And even with all that pre-game work, Guerrero believes the answer lies not with the arms and hands that control the bat but with the mind that dictates their action.

“It’s all up here,” Guerrero told the Toronto Sun prior to the game, while pointing to his head. “It’s mental. You’ve got to stay positive. You’ve got to be really strong mentally and try to stay focused on who you are and the type of player you are.

“That can be hard, but when you have people around you that are there for you and making sure you are staying good mentally — because everybody goes through it — then it becomes a little easier.”

Guerrero certainly has a strong and varied support group in that regard.

Overseeing his work on Tuesday was his uncle Wilton, always a trusted voice in his career, who was in town for the first of three against the Brew Crew. In the dugout, it was hitting coach Gueillermo Martinez and his teammates, including one of his more visible sounding boards, shortstop Bo Bichette.

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It was the latter who television cameras caught in intense dugout convos on the weekend in Minneapolis, discussions that are common between the two, who rose through the Jays farm system together.

“Other times it might be the other way around, when it’s not going well for him and I’m giving him advice and trying to keep him focused,” Guerrero said. “He was telling me just to stay focused on what I do and my routine and not to change and things are going to happen.”

As for the team itself, Guerrero acknowledged the frustrations of a 4-10 stretch entering Tuesday’s contest, a dip that careened them all the way to the bottom of the AL East.

“It’s baseball,” the Gold Glove defender said. “It’s a lot of ups and downs during a long season. We struggle and we go through a slump but we understand that at some point in the season, all teams go through that.

“Having veteran guys who have been through all that and myself who has been through a lot now … we know it’s tough, but you have to stay calm and keep working hard until you get on the right track.”

The Jays certainly did that on Tuesday, answering a two-run first by the Brewers with four in the bottom half, two more in the second and a singleton in the third to cruise to a stress-free victory over the NL Central leaders.

Guerrero didn’t do it all on his own as the team belted out a combined 14 runs. But it was a big step in the right direction for a hitter determined to find his way.

MILESTONE FOR KIKUCHI

Though he wasn’t as efficient as he was earlier in the season, Jays lefty starter Yusei Kikuchi gave his team five innings allowing just two runs.

And he hit a milestone in the process when he struck out the Brewers Joey Wiemer in the fifth for the 500th strikeout of his career, becoming just the ninth Japanese pitcher to reach that many punch outs. That earned Kikuchi a nice applause from the Loonie Dog Night crowd of 32,930.

To his credit, Kikuchi allowed just three hits while walking out five and striking out four. The only real damage was a two-run shot he surrendered to William Contreras in the first, the seventh long ball he’s allowed in his previous four starts.