The player known as “Big Oak” is starting to swing the lumber.
That could be bad news for the Minnesota Twins as they face the Toronto Blue Jays and their hard-hitting third baseman, Kazuma Okamoto, on Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Okamoto is coming off the first two-homer game of his brief career Friday night. He finished with three RBIs to help the Blue Jays pull away for a 7-3 win over the Twins in the second contest of a four-game series.
The performance gave Okamoto seven home runs in 31 games to start the season, tops on the team. The 29-year-old signed with Toronto during the offseason after playing professionally in Japan.
The Blue Jays hope to benefit from Okamoto’s power surge as they look to put an up-and-down April behind them. Toronto started the season 7-13 but has gone 8-4 since then.
A win on Saturday would guarantee Toronto at least a tie in the series against the Twins. Toronto won its previous three series before heading to Minneapolis.
The Twins hope to obstruct Toronto’s turnaround. Minnesota won the series opener 7-1 Thursday before falling short Friday.
Since April 15, the Twins are 3-12. They have lost four consecutive series and need back-to-back victories this weekend to secure their first series win in two-plus weeks.
Twins manager Derek Shelton will need a bounce-back performance from his hitters on Saturday. Byron Buxton is hot with four home runs in his past five games, but the rest of the lineup did not generate much offense in Friday’s loss. The team stranded nine runners.
“(Blue Jays left-hander Patrick) Corbin just kind of kept us off balance,” Shelton said. “He mixed and matched. He used his fastball both in and out, but he was able to use the changeup to keep us off balance.”
On Saturday, the Blue Jays will turn to right-hander Dylan Cease (1-1, 2.87 ERA). He is coming off his first loss of the season after giving up four runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings against the Boston Red Sox on Monday. Toronto fell 5-0.
Cease has made 13 career starts against the Twins, going 4-5 with a 4.69 ERA. He has walked 33 and struck out 79 in 71 innings.
The Twins will counter with left-hander Connor Prielipp (1-0, 4.00), who will take the mound for the first time since earning his first career big-league victory. He pitched in front of family and friends and held the Seattle Mariners to two runs on one hit in five innings in an 11-4 win on Monday.
This will be Prielipp’s first career start against the Blue Jays.
Okamoto is not the only player heating up for Toronto. Rookie outfielder Yohendrick Pinango will look to stay hot after going 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs on Friday night.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Pinango has impressed him. The rookie has appeared in five games, batting .500 (5-for-10).
“We’re going to give him a bit of runway while he’s here,” Schneider said. “That’s the profile you want. Go ahead and swing it, and swing at a good pitch.”
–Field Level Media
