Josh Smith and Kazuma Okamoto smacked back-to-back homers and Jose Soriano tossed seven strong innings to help the Toronto Blue Jays record a 4-2 victory over the Athletics on Tuesday night in West Sacramento, Calif.
Alejandro Kirk added an RBI single for the Blue Jays (73-73), who remain one game behind the Cleveland Guardians (74-72) for the third and final American League wild-card position.
Smith, Okamoto and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. each had two hits for Toronto, which won for the eighth time in 11 games.
Carlos Cortes and Donovan Walton homered for the Athletics, who had won five of their previous six games. Walton and Henry Bolte each had two hits for the A’s (58-88).
Soriano (12-7) gave up two runs and six hits and registered 16 outs on grounders, including one double-play ball. He struck out three and walked one.
Toronto rookie Spencer Miles struck out three in two perfect innings for his second career save. He fanned Tommy White on three pitches to end it.
The Athletics’ Jack Perkins (3-11) was charged with four runs and seven hits over five-plus innings. He struck out three and walked none.
Smith and Okamoto began the second inning with their homers against Perkins.
Smith hit a 2-2 sweeper to right and Okamoto drilled a 2-1 cutter to left. The blast from Okamoto, 30, was the 30th of his first major league season after coming over from Japan.
The Athletics got on the board in the fourth when Cortes sent an 0-2 fastball from Soriano over the wall in right.
In the sixth, Nathan Lukes reached on an infield single and Guerrero followed with a hard-hit single to center to end Perkins’ night.
Kirk followed with an RBI single off Chris Roycroft to make it 3-1. Smith then hit into a double play, with Guerrero scoring from third.
The A’s cut their deficit to two in the seventh when Walton came up with one out and drilled a first-pitch sinker from Soriano over the wall in right.
–Field Level Media
