{"id":651062,"date":"2026-03-29T19:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651062\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T19:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:41:14","slug":"kazuma-okamoto-jesus-sanchez-hit-first-toronto-blue-jays-home-runs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651062\/","title":{"rendered":"Kazuma Okamoto, Jesus Sanchez hit first Toronto Blue Jays home runs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kazuma Okamoto hit his first career MLB home run Sunday, crushing a ball to right-centre field to extend the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>\u2019 lead over the Athletics<\/a> in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n

Facing A\u2019s right-hander Luis Morales<\/a>, Okamoto jumped all over a 96 MPH fastball and belted it 420 feet into the seats, making it 4-0 for the home side. <\/p>\n

The blast continues Okamoto\u2019s strong start to his MLB career as he came into Sunday\u2019s game 3-for-8 with a pair of walks. The 29-year-old flew out to right field in his first at-bat in Sunday\u2019s series finale.<\/p>\n

Signed to a four-year, $60 million deal by Toronto this off-season, Okamoto joins the Jays after 11 seasons in Japan\u2019s NPB league with the Yomiuri Giants. Okamoto slashed .322\/.411\/.581 with 15 homers and 51 RBI in 77 games last year for the Tokyo-based Giants. <\/p>\n

He hit .316 with one home run and four RBI in eight spring training games for Toronto this year.<\/p>\n

Sanchez hits first Jays HR<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, outfielder Jesus Sanchez<\/a> also hit his first Blue Jays home run on Sunday, smoking a two-run shot to centre field in the third inning. <\/p>\n

The homer came on a 3-0 fastball from Morales with catcher Tyler Heimeman on base.<\/p>\n

Sanchez, 28, was acquired from the Houston Astros<\/a> in February in exchange for outfielder Joey Loperfido<\/a>. He had 14 home runs in 134 games last season split between the Miami Marlins<\/a> and Astros.<\/p>\n

After wrapping up against the A\u2019s, the Jays will be back in action on Monday evening at home against the Colorado Rockies<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kazuma Okamoto hit his first career MLB home run Sunday, crushing a ball to right-centre field to extend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2378],"tags":[30173,5,377,2554,4,282,70,46737,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-651062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-blue-jays","11":"tag-bluejays","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-toronto","14":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","15":"tag-toronto-blue-jays-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-238","16":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116314169998077843","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}