Blue Jays' Okamoto hits 22nd homer to tie Ohtani's mark by a Japanese-born rookie

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Toronto's Kazuma Okamoto hit his 22nd home run Friday night to tie Shohei Ohtani for the most by a Japanese-born rookie in a single season in the majors.

Okamoto homered into the seats in left on a 95-mph sinker from reliever Jhony Brito with one out in the fifth, a three-run shot that gave the Blue Jays a 5-2 lead in a 5-3 victory.

"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,” he said through translator Yusuke Oshima.

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 that made him 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,” 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.

Fellow Japanese rookie Munetaka Murakami rejoined the Chicago White Sox on Friday night after being sidelined for more than a month with a strained right hamstring. He was named to the AL All-Star team and added to the field for the Home Run Derby in Philadelphia.

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