Cleveland Guardians at Toronto Blue Jays

Pitch by pitch, Guardians center fielder Angel Martínez willed along his plate appearance in the third inning on Friday. Facing Max Scherzer, the 24-year-old fouled off seven consecutive offerings to open the sequence, before running the count full. Scherzer came back with a four-seam fastball over the heart of the plate on the 11th pitch of the battle. Martínez sent it halfway up the bleachers in right-center field at Rogers Centre. Martínez belted a pair of home runs off Scherzer on Friday, including that two-run shot in the third inning, to help send the Guardians to an 8-6 win over the Blue Jays in the opener of a three-game series. It marked Martínez’s first career multi-homer game, after he also hit a two-run shot in the first inning. “That 11-pitch homer might have been one of the best at-bats I've seen,” manager Stephen Vogt said, “just to work the count, work the pitches, foul off, fight for the next pitch and then get one you can handle.” Martínez drew the start in center field on Friday while Steven Kwan was given a day off. He capped off a five-run Guardians first inning when he hit a two-run homer off a Scherzer four-seamer that went a Statcast-projected 388 feet and had a 103.0 mph exit velocity. He topped that effort his next time at the plate. Martínez fell behind Scherzer 0-2 in the third inning; he fouled off a curveball and a changeup, the latter of which he hit 110 mph and hooked just foul. Facing the likely future Hall of Famer, it could have been easy for Martínez to become overwhelmed. Instead, he showed his own poise. “Just thinking about the next pitch,” Martínez said. “Stay simple, stay to the middle and don’t try to do too much.” Martínez fouled off Scherzer’s next five pitches, including a pair of curveballs in the dirt. Scherzer had to come in the zone after Martínez laid off his ensuing three pitches -- a curveball in the dirt, a changeup inside and a slider up -- and Martínez made him pay.