SAN DIEGO (AP) — Kazuma Okamoto hit his 22nd home run to tie Shohei Ohtani for the most by a Japanese-born rookie in a season in the majors to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 5-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday night.
Okamoto drove a tiebreaking, three-run shot into the left-field seats on a 95-mph sinker from reliever Jhony Brito with one out in the fifth.
Ohtani was with the Los Angeles Angels when he hit 22 in 2018. Ohtani, in his third season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, hit his 300th career homer on Tuesday night against Colorado’s Michael Lorenzen to become the first Japanese-born player in the majors to reach the milestone.
Okamoto, 30, hit his first grand slam on Wednesday at San Francisco.
Okamoto’s 22 homers before the All-Star break are the most by a Blue Jays player since Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s 28 and Marcus Semien’s 22 in 2021, and the most by a Toronto rookie in franchise history.
The Blue Jays won their third straight game while handing the Padres their 11th loss in 14 games.
Mason Fluharty (4-0) got the win. Louis Varland allowed a run on three hits in the ninth for his 19th save.
The Blue Jays chased starter JP Sears (2-2) with singles sandwiched around the first out of the fifth before Guerrero greeted Brito with an RBI single.
San Diego's Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run shot with one out in the first, his ninth. It broke a homerless streak of 128 plate appearances.
Toronto's Shane Bieber allowed two runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings in his fourth start of the season. He didn't make his season debut until June 23 due to forearm fatigue.
Up next
Blue Jays RHP Trey Yesavage (4-4, 3.31 ERA) and Padres RHP Walker Buehler (5-5, 5.07) were scheduled to start Saturday night.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Bernie Wilson, The Associated Press
