Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s bat was one of the biggest stories from the Toronto Blue Jays' 3-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday, but not in the typical sense.
The three-time All-Star's lumber got stuck high up in parts of the protective netting in the top of the fourth inning after Guerrero Jr. fouled off a pitch and lost his grip on the bat.
He finished the at-bat using a different bat and grounded out to second.
As it remained high above the Blue Jays' dugout, teammates and coaches tried numerous methods to extract the bat before starting pitcher Chris Bassitt eventually successfully got it down at the start of the sixth inning.
NEVER Back Down. NEVER WHAT? https://t.co/caCEt3xJda pic.twitter.com/YlLa7NH0bd
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) June 11, 2024
MLB.com's Keegan Matheson detailed some preliminary failed attempts following the blooper.
"Early rescue efforts were rudimentary. Players reached up above the dugout to shake the netting, nervously looking up to make sure that Vladdy’s lumber wasn’t tumbling down on their heads. A couple of balls were thrown up, hoping to knock it loose, but this thing was stuck," Matheson wrote. "Even when Christian Yelich slashed a foul ball into that same netting in the bottom of the fourth, it didn’t budge. If the Blue Jays had started to pile on runs, perhaps this bat would have stayed, dangling above the dugout as their new good luck charm. Milwaukee scored in the bottom half, though, and the Blue Jays struggled to scrape a hit together, so the bat had to come down. This is when the Blue Jays got their engineers involved."
The beat writer explained that Toronto clubhouse manager Mustafa "Moose" Hassan then brought out the long, extended handle used for the operation.
"They could make contact, but couldn’t wrangle it," Matheson wrote. "A loop was added to the end of the stick to wrap around the bat, and with Chris Bassitt taking over the extraction effort, they finally grabbed on. Bassitt is an outdoorsman, capable of crafting something out of nothing, and finally freed the bat."
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