Kazuma Okamoto's First Grand Slam, 21st Homer of Season, Nears Ohtani's Rookie Record

(San Francisco, April 8, CNA) Major League Baseball's Toronto Blue Jays' Japanese slugger Kazuma Okamoto hit his first career grand slam in MLB today, leading his team to a dominant 10-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants. Okamoto's 21st homer of the season brings him within one of Shohei Ohtani's rookie record of 22 home runs.

Okamoto has been on a hot streak recently, and is poised to tie the rookie record set by the Los Angeles Dodgers' two-way star Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani hit 22 home runs in his 2018 rookie season, a record that still stands as the most by a Japanese player in their MLB rookie year.

According to the Associated Press, the Blue Jays' offense scored 5 runs in the first inning of today's game. Okamoto hit a grand slam to right field in the top of the first off Giants starting pitcher Logan Webb, setting the tone for the game early on.

In this game, Okamoto had 2 hits in 5 at-bats, driving in 4 runs. His batting average is now 0.237, ranking him second in home runs for Japanese players in their MLB rookie years.

Blue Jays right-hander Dylan Cease retired the first 14 batters consecutively and held the Giants scoreless for the first 8 innings, completely dominating their lineup. It wasn't until the bottom of the 9th that Giants batter Heliot Ramos hit the first hit, preventing Cease from adding another no-hitter to the Blue Jays' history.

Cease threw 118 pitches in the game, a career-high for him in a single game, with 81 of them being strikes. As he exited the mound, the home crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Cease recorded 11 strikeouts in the game, bringing his season total to 148 strikeouts, ranking him first in the American League.

The Blue Jays will face the San Diego Padres on the road on April 10. (Compiled by Liu Wenyu) 1150709

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