Okamoto anchors four-run seventh as Blue Jays rally past Reds 6-5

Toronto started clean, then spent the night chasing

The Blue Jays did not drift into this game. They opened it with exactly the kind of direct offense that can settle a home team: Alejandro Kirk doubled to center to bring in Charles McAdoo, and Kazuma Okamoto followed with a double to left that scored Kirk for a 2-0 lead. It was a sharp beginning, and for an inning it looked as though Toronto might control the pace.

Cincinnati overturned that picture quickly. Eugenio Suárez cut the lead to 2-1 with a solo homer in the second, and the third inning became the Reds’ best stretch of the night. Elly De La Cruz doubled to left to score Carlos Jorge and Oswaldo Cabrera, Sal Stewart singled to right to bring De La Cruz home, and Rodríguez added another run on a fielder’s choice that scored Stewart while Suárez was retired at second. In the space of two innings, Toronto’s advantage had flipped into a 5-2 deficit.

That sequence matters because it defined the game Toronto had to win. The Blue Jays were no longer protecting an early edge; they were trying to erase a three-run hole against a club that would finish with 12 hits. The comeback only became possible because Cincinnati’s offense, so dangerous in the second and third, stopped adding to the total afterward.

One inning, three scoring plays, a different result

From the fourth through the sixth, the scoreboard finally went quiet. For Toronto, that silence was useful. A game that had tilted toward Cincinnati stayed within reach, and a three-run gap can feel much smaller when it does not keep growing.

Then came the seventh, and Toronto’s hitters stacked their key swings in order. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled to right to score Giménez and move Kirk to second. That cut the deficit to 5-3 and turned the inning from hopeful to live. Okamoto followed with the biggest extra-base hit of the night for Toronto, a double to center that scored both Kirk and Guerrero Jr. and sent George Springer to third. Just like that, the game was level at 5-5.

The inning still needed one more clean finish, and Nathan Lukes supplied it. His single to left scored Springer and pushed Okamoto to third, completing a four-run inning and giving Toronto its first lead since the opening frame. It was not a long, complicated comeback. It was a concise one: one RBI single, one two-run double, one go-ahead single, and the whole night changed direction.

Our take: timely offense won it, but both clubs left with clear lessons

Our take: this was a useful reminder that baseball games are not awarded on hit totals alone. Cincinnati collected 12 hits to Toronto’s 10, yet Toronto produced the decisive clusters. The Blue Jays did their damage in two concentrated bursts, scoring twice in the first and four times in the seventh, and that was enough. Okamoto’s night sits at the center of the result because both of his scoring swings were doubles, and together they accounted for three runs batted in. Kirk helped build both early and late momentum, while Guerrero Jr. and Lukes delivered the seventh-inning sequence its shape.

If Toronto is looking for the caution inside the win, it is the opening third of the game. The Blue Jays gave up five runs by the end of the third inning, including a home run by Suárez, a two-run double by De La Cruz and two more run-scoring plays afterward. That is too much early repair work to invite regularly. The encouraging counterpoint is that Toronto did clean up the rest of the night: Cincinnati did not score again from the fourth through the ninth, and the Blue Jays finished without an error.

For the Reds, the frustration is easy to locate. A team that leads 5-2 after three innings and finishes with 12 hits should expect to be in control much deeper into the night than Cincinnati was here. The missing piece was any additional scoring after the third. That does not erase the quality of the early work from Suárez, De La Cruz and Stewart, but it does show where the game turned. Add in the lone Reds error, and there were just enough loose edges for Toronto to exploit. The Blue Jays did not overwhelm this game. They simply owned the inning that mattered most.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Inning

   Kirk doubled to center, McAdoo scored.

2. 1st Inning

   Okamoto doubled to left, Kirk scored.

3. 2nd Inning

   Suárez homered to left (380 feet).

4. 3rd Inning

   De La Cruz doubled to left, Jorge scored and Cabrera scored.

5. 3rd Inning

   Stewart singled to right, De La Cruz scored.

6. 3rd Inning

   Rodríguez grounded into fielder's choice to pitcher, Stewart scored, Suárez out at second.

7. 7th Inning

   Guerrero Jr. singled to right, Giménez scored, Kirk to second.

8. 7th Inning

   Okamoto doubled to center, Kirk scored and Guerrero Jr. scored, Springer to third.

9. 7th Inning

   Lukes singled to left, Springer scored, Okamoto to third.