Blue Jays 8, Yankees 5: The Utmost Deck

 

look up; look way up

Alejandro Kirk finally returned to the lineup after missing sixty-odd games with a broken thumb, and went three-for-three with an RBI double and a walk after successfully challenging the umpire's call of a ball on Trey Yesavage's very first pitch of the game. Our guy was dialed in, start to finish. George Springer homered, and, perhaps more impressively for a man of his vintage, later scored from first on an Ernie Clement double. Fluharty, Fisher, Rogers, and Varland were all stout as you could ever hope in relief behind Yesavage's start, in which he battled through "command issues" that saw him walk six, regrettably. And yet none of these notable and/or worthy things (and/or guys) made quite the same impression as Kazuma Okamoto, who hit one clear into the 500s, which, I do not need to tell you, does not happen all that often. Indeed, it happens rarely enough that there is a page devoted to the feat in the Blue Jays' media guide, which has been circulate in the aftermath of Okamoto's mighty wallop:

Quite a list! In my mind, it is a feat I associate most closely with peak-juice José Canseco, which I suppose adds up, as he is the first to have done it in the SkyDome's first year, and it happened in the American League Championship Series when I was ten; these things have a way of sticking with you (that he did it two other times, once as a Blue Jay, I could not have told you). Having consulted my extensive records (several volumes of scorekeeping I keep very much at hand), the only one I was personally in attendance for was Raul Mondesi's, struck 4/17/02 off of Darren Oliver. It really is a fun list to peruse, I think! It's nice to be reminded that Carlos Delgado did it; it's strange to think Josh Phelps, of all people, did it twice; and it is pitiable indeed to recall that poor Trent Thornton gave up 500-level home runs to Austin Meadows and Brandon Lowe not only in the same game, but in the same inning (or maybe that's the wrong way to think about it: if it's going to happen twice, maybe it's better to get it all over with as quickly as possible [make it back-to-back, even]). 

Twenty-four times in all, then, but just the once with Vladdy's hands on his head in disbelief as the frappeur circled the bases all low-key like nothing much had happened. A little later, they showed Vladdy catching Okamoto's attention, pointing to his biceps, and then making a spoony-spoony gesture to signify eating, as though they were playing charades and the word had been "gains." It might well have been! Good stuff, Kazuma Okamoto! And everybody else, too! A super fun win.

KS