Kazuma Okamoto keyed a four-run seventh with a two-run double Friday night and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the visiting Cincinnati Reds 6-5.
Okamoto also had an RBI double in the first inning and has 92 RBIs this season to lead the Blue Jays (78-82), who took the opener of the three-game series with the Reds (74-86).
Mason Fluharty (7-1) pitched two-thirds of an inning to pick up the win. Louis Varland pitched a perfect ninth to earn his 35th save.
Eugenio Suarez hit a solo home run for the Reds. Elly De La Cruz stole his 30th base of the season to go with 30 homers.
Toronto scored twice against Nick Lodolo in the first. Charles McAdoo led off with a double to right and scored on Alejandro Kirk’s double to center. Okamoto drove in the other run with a two-out double to left.
Suarez drove an 0-2 curveball down the middle from Toronto starter Jose Soriano to left for his 26th homer of the season with one out in the second.
Cincinnati added four runs in the third. Oswaldo Cabrera led off with a single and took second on Carlos Jorge’s bunt hit to the pitcher. De La Cruz poked a two-run double to left and promptly stole third, becoming the fourth player in Reds history with a 30-homer, 30-steal season. The double was also his 30th. Sal Stewart hit an RBI single to right, took third on a single by Suarez and scored on a fielder’s choice when Hector Rodriguez bounced back to Soriano.
Soriano allowed five runs, eight hits and no walks with two strikeouts in three innings.
Lodolo hit Nathan Lukes with a pitch to lead off the home sixth and was replaced by Luis Mey.
Lodolo allowed two runs, seven hits and two walks with three strikeouts in five-plus innings.
Toronto took the lead in the seventh. Mey (0-2) walked pinch hitter Andres Gimenez and Kirk. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had an RBI single when the broken top half of his bat redirected the ball into right field. George Springer reached first on Cabrera’s error on a grounder to shortstop. Okamoto hit a two-run double to left-center against Pierce Johnson and Lukes guided an RBI single to left.
Toronto’s Tyler Rogers pitched around a leadoff single in the eighth.
–Field Level Media
