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Instant Reaction: Kazuma Okamoto stars in Blue Jays’ 4-3 win over Royals
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Photo credit: © Denny Medley-Imagn Images
Ian Finlayson
Sep 5, 2026, 22:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 5, 2026, 22:20 EDT
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The Toronto Blue Jays keep finding ways to win.
From a 9-2 thumping of the Kansas City Royals in Game 1 of their weekend series to scraping out a 4-3 win on Saturday, the Blue Jays’ somewhat promising process now takes a back seat to their even better results. Toronto has now gone 7-1 in its last eight games to move above .500 for the first time since April 3rd and end the night in the final American League wild card spot.
For Kazuma Okamoto, process equalled results, as the Japanese slugger had four knocks, all on hard-hit balls. It was the first four-hit game of Okamoto’s MLB career. The fourth, a line-drive single up the middle in the seventh, scored George Springer and gave the Blue Jays a one-run lead they didn’t relinquish.
For a second straight game, the Blue Jays built an early lead. In a messy first inning, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. came around to score from first on a broken play. Alejandro Kirk dribbled a swinging bunt up the third-base line; Josh Rojas fired the throw wide of first base; it bounced into shallow left, and Guerrero tested Jac Caglianone’s 100th-percentile arm, deftly avoiding the tag at home. Caglianone later left the game in the third inning with left elbow soreness. Nathan Lukes followed with a line-drive single to plate Kirk.
But Kansas City evened the score in the bottom half, as Bobby Witt Jr., Caglianone and Salvador Perez strung together three straight hits after Carter Jensen was hit by Max Scherzer with the first pitch of the game. Royals pitcher Daniel Lynch IV hit Brett Bateman with the first pitch in the opening game of the series the day before. 
The clubs stayed neck-and-neck. Okamoto drove in Lukes from third with a hard-hit ball down the line, but was thrown out trying to reach third when Isaac Collins briefly bobbled the ball in the left-field corner and recovered. John Rave evened the score again with a solo home run in the fourth. 
Another error by a Royals infielder, this time Witt Jr., gave Okamoto the opportunity to drive in the winning run in the seventh. The platinum-glove-winning shortstop made an errant throw after Nathan Lukes hit a ground ball, allowing the inning to continue. 
Scherzer, fresh off his best start in a Blue Jays jersey — seven innings of one-hit ball against the Mariners — lasted 5.2 innings. And though his stuff wasn’t as sharp, he still limited hard contact, allowing the same number of hard-hit balls (6) and walks (one).
Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino each hit deep fly outs to the wall, 404 feet to centre and 362 to right, respectively, for the final two outs Scherzer recorded. Each would have left the yard in about a quarter of MLB parks. Michael Massey ripped a single up the middle for good measure before Scherzer got the hook.
Mason Fluharty, Paul Sewald, Tyler Rogers, and Louis Varland combined for 3.1 shutout innings out of the bullpen, with Varland mowing down the bottom of the Royals order in the ninth for his 33rd save.
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