Vladimir Guerrero Jr. joins exclusive Dominican club

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. joined a group so rare, it doesn’t even include the two Dominican sluggers in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He was a one-man wrecking crew with three home runs Wednesday night against the New York Yankees.

While almost single-handedly beating the Yankees 6-4 at Yankee Stadium, Vladdy became the 12th Dominican to have a pair of three-home run games in his career. 

The Dominican-Canadian Guerrero Jr. accomplished a feat that even his Hall of Fame dad Vladimir Guerrero Sr. couldn’t in the majors. 

The two Dominican sluggers who have been voted into the Hall of Fame never had a three-home run game.  David Ortiz, who will be inducted in Cooperstown, N.Y., this July, had 51 multiple-homer games while accumulating 541 round-trippers. But Big Papi never hit three in a game.

Vladimir Guerrero Sr. hit 449 home runs and had 42 multi-homer games without hitting three in a game.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. makes it a dozen

He joined an exclusive list of Dominicans with multiple three-homer games. That group includes Alex Rodriguez, Manny Machado, Sammy Sosa, Aramis Ramirez, Albert Pujols, Alfonso Soriano, Geronimo Berroa, Manny Ramirez, Miguel Tejada and Nelson Cruz.

Sosa is the Dominican’s all-time leader in three-home run games with six. Dominican American A-Rod had five, three-homer games. Aramis Ramirez and Pujols both had four three-run homer games.  Soriano and Encarnacion had a trio of three-homer games.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. delivered his second three-home run game less than a year after his first three-run home run effort last April 27 against the Nationals. 

Neither of his three-homer games was in Toronto. His first three-home run game was technically a home game at the Blue Jays’ spring training home of TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla. 

Carlos Delgado holds Blue Jays mark

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. still needs a trio of three-home run games to tie Puerto Rican power hitter Carlos Delgado for the franchise’s record of five games with at least three home runs. 

Delgado’s four, three-home run performances all came on the road. However, he hit four home runs against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the SkyDome. 

Delgado’s five games with three home runs makes him the career American League leader. He shares that AL record with Rodriguez. Sosa is the National League’s all-time leader in three-homer games.  

Four Latinos had three-home run games last season: Guerrero, J.D. Martinez, Miguel Sano, and Seby Zavala. 

Moreover, Latinos had five of the last six three-homer performances in the playoffs. Adrian Beltre, Pujols, Pablo Sandoval, Jose Altuve and Enrique Hernandez each hit three in a playoff game.