On April 18, the Toronto Blue Jays lost 6-2 to the Diamondbacks in Arizona. It was their fourth straight loss and it put them a season worst six games below .500 at 7-13. But in that game, Kazuma Okamoto collected two hits. He had been mired in an ugly 2-for-27 stretch where nothing was working. Although he only had six strikeouts, things just weren't falling into place for him.
But after those two hits in the loss to the Diamondbacks, he came out the next day and had two more hits, including his first home run since March 30. Okamoto has been on a roll since then, as the Blue Jays have gone 8-5 over that stretch and Okamoto has been a major contributor to that success.
He's slashed .289/.385/.644 with an OPS of 1.029. He's hit five home runs, driven in 14 RBIs and has scored 10 runs himself in those 13 games. His wRC+ during this stretch is 144 and it seems like he has been the guy coming up with the big hit more times than not.
According to FanGraphs he's added 0.54 WPA and his Clutch over that span is 0.28. Both of those analytics leads the team among qualified hitters. Andrés Giménez has the highest Clutch at 0.39 but in less plate appearances. Hitting with Runners in Scoring Position has been an issue for the Blue Jays all season. The group has pulled themselves up to a .244/313/.328 slash line which ranks in the middle of the pack in MLB, and a lot of that is thanks to Okamoto's .417/.533/.500 slash line in those situations over the last 13 games.
Blue Jays have started to cash in thanks to Okamoto
While his strikeout numbers are still high (27.7%), he also has the second best walk rate on the team over that stretch (12.6%) behind only Davis Schneider (26.1%). The combination shows just how well Okamoto is adjusting to the league. While he's still getting fooled against some breaking pitches, he's been smashing fastballs when he catches up to them, and also has a .292 xBA on offspeed pitches.
His hard hit percentage has climbed to 59% as well in those last 13 games and that allowed Okamoto to record his first career two-homer game in the MLB on Friday night (May 1). The Blue Jays' third baseman had a monster analytical night at the plate.
In his first at-bat he just swung over the top of a 93 mph fastball that was basically right down the plate. While he pounded it into the ground at 94.5 mph and grounded out to short, it was the ninth pitch of an at-bat in which he fouled off five pitches, all of which were either splitters or sliders.
In his second at-bat, he took an 85 mph slider and smashed it 104.8 mph over the left field wall to put Toronto ahead 3-2 on a solo home run. He topped that the next inning by hitting a two-run blast on a first pitch slider that ran in on the knees at 87.1 mph. Okamoto crushed it 110.2 mph, also to left field, giving the Blue Jays a nice 6-2 cushion in the top of the fifth.
Okamoto then led off the seventh with a six pitch walk and later scored on a single by Yohendrick Pinango.In the top of the ninth, he just missed hitting his third home run of the game when he launched a ball 381 feet to center field that James Outman tracked down right up against the wall. It left the bat at 99.3 mph, giving Okamoto a 2-for-4 night in which three of the four balls off his bat were hit 99 mph or harder.
Among all third basemen in MLB, Okamoto currently sits fourth with a 52.6% hard hit rate and third with an 8.6 barrels per plate appearance percentage. The Blue Jays seemingly got a great deal on paper when they originally signed the Japanese slugger, and it seems as long as Okamoto stays hot, so to will the Blue Jays.