Okamoto, Smith hit home runs to help Blue Jays down Athletics

Kazuma Okamoto and Josh Smith hit home runs as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Athletics 4-2 on Tuesday night. The Blue Jays, with a 73-73 record, are one game behind the Cleveland Guardians for the final American League wild-card spot. Earlier in the day, the Guardians beat the Baltimore Orioles 9-5. Texas Rangers, who had beaten the Mariners 10-5 in Seattle, are a half-game behind the Blue Jays.

Okamoto opened the scoring in the second inning with a 360-foot shot, giving Toronto a 1-0 lead. He has five homers in his 20 games with the Blue Jays. Okamoto's 30th home run of the rookie season marks him as only the fourth player in major league history to hit 30 home runs in a season as a rookie, alongside Shohei Ohtani, Hideki Matsui, and Seiya Suzuki.

In his second at-bat, Okamoto hit the 30th home run of his rookie season, joining a group of only four players to accomplish this feat as a rookie. Alejandro Kirk added an RBI single, and Smith capped the scoring with a one-run double play. José Soriano pitched seven innings of two-run ball for the Blue Jays, striking out three while giving up six hits. Spencer Miles worked two hitless innings for his second save of the season.

The Athletics' Carlos Cortes and Donovan Walton each hit home runs. Starting pitcher Jack Perkins (3-11) allowed all four runs on seven hits while striking out three. The Athletics hope LHP Brady Basso (1-2, 4.32 ERA) can step in on Wednesday, with the Blue Jays planning to have reliever Braydon Fisher as the opener.