Opinion | Jays keep Vlad’s buddy Ronald Acuña Jr. in check — no small feat

You’ve seen it a few times before and during two Blue Jays wins over Atlanta: two old pals chatting at first base, grabbing each other by the jersey, just generally yukking it up.

The difference is that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ronald Acuña Jr. are two of the best baseball players in the world.

“We’ve been friends forever,” Guerrero said through translator Hector Lebron after Saturday’s 5-2 win in which he doubled, scored a run and drove in another with a sacrifice fly. “Since the minor leagues we’ve been very, very good friends and that has never stopped. So when we see each other in the big leagues, we continue to have that great relationship.”

So far, Vladdy’s Jays have taken it to Acuña’s Braves, holding the National League’s best team to just two runs over two games and handing them their fourth and fifth road losses of the season, against 15 wins.

A lot of that has to do with stopping Acuña. The three-time all-star was the NL’s player of the month in April and came into this series hitting .347 with a 1.014 OPS, third-best in the major leagues. Against the Jays, he’s managed just a pair of singles and a walk.

“That’s huge,” the Jays’ George Springer said of controlling the opposition’s leadoff man. “Obviously he’s having a heck of a year. He’s a threat to do something any time, anywhere, any place. He doesn’t just have to hit for power … he has really good at-bats, he knows how to make you work. So for us to be able to keep him off the scoresheet a little bit is huge, because he’s obviously what makes them go.”

The manager agrees.

“He’s a nightmare on the bases and arguably one of the best players in the game,” John Schneider said after the Jays’ fifth straight win against a first-place team. “We’ve done a really good job with him so far and hopefully we can continue to do so, because … he can change the game with a swing, a throw or on the bases.”

So far, the Jays haven’t let him do any of those things.

Acuña made it to second base after his Friday night single in the sixth inning, but was erased on the front end of a terrific double-play turned by Matt Chapman to help maintain a 1-0 Jays lead.

On Saturday, Acuña was on third base in the fifth inning and looking to extend Atlanta’s 2-1 lead, but Springer made a sensational diving catch of a Eddie Rosario line drive with two out to snuff the threat.

“A play like that is really, really fun to make,” Springer said of his Superman dive, flat out to his right — with the Jays’ original Superman, Kevin Pillar, sitting in the Atlanta dugout. “It’s obviously a fun spot, and who knows how the game ends up or how that inning could spiral out of control.”

It didn’t, and the Jays tied it up in the bottom of the inning. The game was still tied when Acuña led off the seventh with an infield single, then stole second and third. But after a couple of walks loaded the bases, first baseman Guerrero came up with a Sean Murphy grounder and fired home to erase his good buddy.

Jays pitchers have held the top four of a very dangerous Atlanta lineup in check for two games. Acuña, Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Murphy have combined to go 3-for-30 so far in the only series between the teams this season, without a run scored or driven in.

On the other side of the ledger, Springer, Bo Bichette, Guerrero and Daulton Varsho have gone 7-for-29 atop the Jays order with a couple of doubles and a home run, scoring three times and driving in five.

It hearkens back to Schneider’s comment last week in Pittsburgh. When the Jays play their A-game, they can beat anybody else’s A-game. But the skipper said he isn’t using this series victory over a team that has won five straight division titles — and the 2021 World Series — as a measuring stick.

“I think we’re at the point now,” said Schneider, “where (that idea) is kind of out the window. We come into series expecting to win, and I think the teams come in when they’re playing us thinking the same thing we do about a team like (Atlanta).”

Which is: They’re going to be very difficult to beat.

Especially when the Jays are taking good care of the baseball, as they have been more often than not while winning five of their last seven games.

Plays such as Springer’s, one by Whit Merrifield at second base to start the game on a slow grounder by Acuña, and Chapman starting an around-the-horn double-play to end the eighth made an impression on Jays starter José Berríos.

“All that kind of stuff is going to let you win a championship,” said Berríos, who allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings in his fifth strong start in the last six. “Every pitch counts, so when you get a ground ball, a fly ball, we have to (turn it into) an out. That’s how you win ball games.”

Holding the other team’s best hitters down doesn’t hurt, either.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness

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