Blue Jays’ Okamoto hits 22nd homer to tie Ohtani’s rookie mark in 5-3 win over Padres

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 and 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-m.p.h. sinker from reliever Jhony Brito with one out in the fifth.

Ohtani was with the Los Angeles Angels when he hit 22 in 2018.

“Obviously, you guys all know Shohei is an awesome player, he’s the unicorn. Being able to match that record, yeah, it’s awesome, but I just want to do my best so that I can get closer to his level kind of thing,” Okamoto said through translator Yusuke Oshima.

Ohtani, in his third season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, hit his 300th career home run Tuesday against Colorado’s Michael Lorenzen to become the first Japanese-born player in the majors to reach the milestone.

Okamoto struck out in his first two-at bats and fouled off three straight pitches during his seven-pitch at-bat that resulted in the homer.

“He’s got power, man,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “I mean, he didn’t even get that. He just continues to be really impressive and just adjusting pitch to pitch, game to game. I’m running out of things to say. He ties the Japanese rookie record with 22 and is in some pretty elite territory there with Shohei.”

Okamoto, 30, hit his first grand slam 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 snapped a three-game losing streak 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