TORONTO – On any other night, the monster home run from Toronto Blue Jays infielder Kazuma Okamoto hit into the fifth deck in the first inning would have dominated the post-game chatter.<\/p>\n
But Okamoto\u2019s 423-foot blast, the first since Josh Donaldson slammed one into the 500 level, took a back seat to the return of veteran catcher Alejandro Kirk on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Kirk was back behind the plate for the first time since he suffered a fractured left thumb 62 games ago. He returned in style with a three-hit, two-RBIs and a walk in the Blue Jays\u2019 (34-36) 8-5 series-opening win over the New York Yankees (41-27).<\/p>\n
He also successfully challenged the first pitch tossed by starter Trey Yesavage that home-plate umpire John Tumpane incorrectly called a ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it’s pretty good,\u201d Toronto manager John Schneider said. \u201cIt’s kind of Kirky, like he doesn’t budge. First pitch, challenge, no biggie, double, single, single, walk. Yeah, he’s just steady. He’s one of one, man.<\/p>\n
“It’s great to have him back for a variety of reasons. The at-bats were great, but just having him back was great. You don’t really just expect a 3-for-3 night, and everything to be perfect. But I think getting some guys back just stabilizes a lot of things. It stabilizes things on the field and stabilizes things in the clubhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Kirk walked to the bullpen for Yesavage\u2019s warm-up session, there was a buzz at Rogers Centre. The fans who arrived early cheered the sight of the 27-year-old back in a Blue Jays uniform.<\/p>\n
Then, when he came to the plate in his cleanup spot in the first inning, the sellout gathering of 41,596 rose to give Kirk an ovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard every one of them,\u201d he said. \u201cI love the fans here.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the pitch challenge, Kirk said he wants to challenge any pitch he feels is a strike. Yesavage had his back turned and didn\u2019t know his catcher had challenged the opening pitch until he heard the umpire announce the review.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad he challenged it,\u201d Yesavage said. \u201cHe\u2019s a great pitch caller, and you saw what he can do on offence.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the plate, Kirk doubled to the left-field gap to score Ernie Clement in the first, singled in the third and fifth, knocking in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with the third hit. He walked in the seventh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t trying to do too much,\u201d Kirk said. \u201cI was just trying to get on base.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was on base when Okamoto clubbed his fifth-deck shot for his team-leading 14th homer. It left even a slugger like Guerrero with his mouth wide open.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the same,\u201d Schneider said, referring to Guerrero\u2019s reaction. \u201cI was just hoping it was fair. You knew it was going far. You don’t see that very often, but that was about as pure as you can clip a slider and keep it fair. He\u2019s got some big-time power, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO – On any other night, the monster home run from Toronto Blue Jays infielder Kazuma Okamoto hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2323,2314,2317,2313,2413,3685,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,185,70,5196,93,1039],"class_list":["post-724661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-champion-seasons-in-major-league-baseball","tag-kazuma-okamoto","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-sports","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-trey-yesavage","tag-vladimir-guerrero-jr","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724661","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=724661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}