{"id":682771,"date":"2026-04-25T21:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/682771\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T21:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:54:19","slug":"okamoto-homers-for-second-straight-game-drives-in-two-as-blue-jays-beat-guardians-5-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/682771\/","title":{"rendered":"Okamoto homers for second straight game, drives in two as Blue Jays beat Guardians 5-3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TORONTO \u2014 Kazuma Okamoto homered for the second straight game, Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez hit a two-run single and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Cleveland Guardians 5-3 on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Daulton Varsho had the tiebreaking hit in Toronto\u2019s three-run sixth inning as the Blue Jays won for just the second time in eight games against AL Central opponents.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Gausman (2-1) allowed two runs and six hits in 6 2\/3 innings to win his second straight start as the Blue Jays bounced back from Friday\u2019s 8-6 loss.<\/p>\n<p>Mason Fluharty got one out, Tyler Rogers worked the eighth and Louis Varland survived a rocky ninth inning for his second save in two chances despite allowing pinch hitter Kyle Manzardo&#8217;s RBI double. Varland struck out Brayan Rocchio for the final out, leaving the bases loaded.<\/p>\n<p>Okamoto went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and scored twice. He homered in the fourth, singled and scored in the sixth and drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk in the seventh.<\/p>\n<p>David Fry hit a solo home run, his first, but Cleveland couldn\u2019t manage to win back-to-back games for the fourth time. The Guardians have yet to win three straight in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Cleveland opened the scoring in the third on Rocchio\u2019s RBI grounder.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Toronto Blue Jays' Kazuma Okamoto (7) singles off Cleveland Guardians...\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"770\" height=\"433.125\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777154058_641_image.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Toronto Blue Jays&#8217; Kazuma Okamoto (7) singles off Cleveland Guardians pitcher Matt Festa (52) during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Credit: AP\/Chris Young<\/p>\n<p>Okamoto tied it with a 425-foot drive to center off Joey Cantillo to begin the fourth, his fifth.<\/p>\n<p>Cantillo (1-1) allowed three runs and six hits in five-plus innings, leaving after back-to-back singles by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Okamoto to begin the sixth.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Festa came on and struck out pinch hitter Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez but Varsho grounded an RBI single past second baseman Brito.<\/p>\n<p>One out later, Gim\u00e9nez blooped a two-run double that landed on the left field foul line and skipped past a sliding George Valera.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Cleveland Guardians' Juan Brito hits a double off Toronto Blue...\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"770\" height=\"433.125\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777154059_377_image.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cleveland Guardians&#8217; Juan Brito hits a double off Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman during the third inning during the third inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Saturday, April 25, 2026. Credit: AP\/Chris Young<\/p>\n<p>Up next<\/p>\n<p>LHP Patrick Corbin (0-0, 3.68 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Blue Jays on Sunday against Guardians RHP Slade Cecconi (0-3, 6.20).<\/p>\n<p>__<\/p>\n<p>AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Kazuma Okamoto homered for the second straight game, Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez hit a two-run single and the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,538,4,70,2524],"class_list":{"0":"post-682771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-guardians","11":"tag-clevelandguardians","12":"tag-guardians","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116467576093558066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682771","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=682771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}