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Kazuma Okamoto hopes to power Blue Jays past Padres
It’s not been the season the Toronto Blue Jays envisioned. Even after a 5-3 win to start their weekend series Friday night at the San Diego Padres, they’re four games under .500 and 1 1/2 games out of the American League’s last wild-card spot.
Imagine how much worse off they’d be if Kazuma Okamoto weren’t doing things like tying Shohei Ohtani’s major league rookie records.
With a three-run homer in the fifth inning that gave Toronto the lead for good Friday night, Okamoto matched Ohtani’s 22 homers as a member of the Los Angeles Angels back in 2018. Okamoto will take his swings at surpassing Ohtani Saturday night when the Blue Jays try for a series win inside Petco Park.
“It was great but we still have lots of season to go,” Okamoto said through an interpreter after Friday night’s win. “I just want to keep preparing and helping the team win.”
How vital has Okamoto been? He’s the only Toronto hitter to crack more than nine homers and his 62 RBIs are 24 more than any Blue Jay. While he’s struck out a whopping 116 times, his 34 walks are more than anyone else on the team except Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
If the last three games are any indication, Okamoto might finally have some help. Toronto has scored 24 runs in winning those games, creating some hope that it might get going down the stretch to defend its AL title.
“All we can do is put up good at-bats as a team and we’ve been doing that recently,” he said.
Rookie Trey Yesavage (4-4, 3.31) will try for another quality start after suffering a 4-0 loss on Sunday in Seattle. Yesavage allowed just three hits and two earned runs in six innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. This will be his first career start against San Diego.
The Padres will counter with fellow right-hander Walker Buehler (5-5, 5.07), who was pounded for seven runs in five innings on Monday night in an 8-0 loss to Arizona.
Buehler, who’s allowed 16 runs over nine innings in his last two starts, is 0-1 with a 2.60 ERA in three career starts against Toronto.
San Diego could use that Buehler or the one that sailed through June with a 1.71 ERA instead of the one whose ERA has soared more than a run in his last two starts. It could also use more offense, which has been the story since it briefly occupied first place in the NL West in mid-May.
The Padres had chances on Friday night but again came up dry with men on base. Jackson Merrill’s two-out RBI single in the ninth was their only hit in seven tries with a runner in scoring position. In dropping to 2-3 on their homestand, they stranded nine men.
“We weren’t able to punch through when we needed to,” manager Craig Stammen said. “We had a lot of missed opportunities. We had a lot of baserunners but didn’t really cash them in.”
While the Padres are seeing their margin for error shrink with every loss, Stammen isn’t quite playing the games like they’re win-or-else.
“I’m not playing every game like Game 7 at this point,” he said. “That would be foolish at this point.”
–Field Level Media
