It’s not been the season the Toronto Blue Jays envisioned. Even after a 5-3 win to start their weekend series Friday night at the San Diego Padres, they’re four games under .500 and 1 1/2 games out of the American League’s last wild-card spot.

Imagine how much worse off they’d be if Kazuma Okamoto weren’t doing things like tying Shohei Ohtani’s major league rookie records.

With a three-run homer in the fifth inning that gave Toronto the lead for good Friday night, Okamoto matched Ohtani’s 22 homers as a member of the Los Angeles Angels back in 2018. Okamoto will take his swings at surpassing Ohtani Saturday night when the Blue Jays try for a series win inside Petco Park.

“It was great but we still have lots of season to go,” Okamoto said through an interpreter after Friday night’s win. “I just want to keep preparing and helping the team win.”

How vital has Okamoto been? He’s the only Toronto hitter to crack more than nine homers and his 62 RBIs are 24 more than any Blue Jay. While he’s struck out a whopping 116 times, his 34 walks are more than anyone else on the team except Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

If the last three games are any indication, Okamoto might finally have some help. Toronto has scored 24 runs in winning those games, creating some hope that it might get going down the stretch to defend its AL title.

“All we can do is put up good at-bats as a team and we’ve been doing that recently,” he said.

Rookie Trey Yesavage (4-4, 3.31) will try for another quality start after suffering a 4-0 loss on Sunday in Seattle. Yesavage allowed just three hits and two earned runs in six innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. This will be his first career start against San Diego.

The Padres will counter with fellow right-hander Walker Buehler (5-5, 5.07), who was pounded for seven runs in five innings on Monday night in an 8-0 loss to Arizona.

Buehler, who’s allowed 16 runs over nine innings in his last two starts, is 0-1 with a 2.60 ERA in three career starts against Toronto.

San Diego could use that Buehler or the one that sailed through June with a 1.71 ERA instead of the one whose ERA has soared more than a run in his last two starts. It could also use more offense, which has been the story since it briefly occupied first place in the NL West in mid-May.

The Padres had chances on Friday night but again came up dry with men on base. Jackson Merrill’s two-out RBI single in the ninth was their only hit in seven tries with a runner in scoring position. In dropping to 2-3 on their homestand, they stranded nine men.

“We weren’t able to punch through when we needed to,” manager Craig Stammen said. “We had a lot of missed opportunities. We had a lot of baserunners but didn’t really cash them in.”

While the Padres are seeing their margin for error shrink with every loss, Stammen isn’t quite playing the games like they’re win-or-else.

“I’m not playing every game like Game 7 at this point,” he said. “That would be foolish at this point.”

–Field Level Media

Both sides will need their starting pitchers to chew up innings on Saturday night when the visiting Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals meet for the second contest of a three-game set.

Following a rain delay that spanned 2 hours and 43 minutes in the series opener on Friday — a game that St. Louis won 2-1 — the Braves were forced to deploy four relief pitchers while the Cardinals sent in five.

Matthew Liberatore (4-6, 5.34 ERA) will start on Saturday for St. Louis, in search of just his second victory since May 31. The 26-year-old left-hander scattered four runs (three earned) on four hits across five innings on Sunday, striking out three and walking two in a 6-4 road loss to the Chicago Cubs.

Liberatore also hit three batters in the third defeat in his past four starts.

“There are some things from a usage standpoint and an execution standpoint that we’re hoping to see him take the next step in, in order for this to go better for him,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “If you look at a lot of his outings, (the opponent) is just bunching him up. The three-plus runs in an inning, that’s a big number. Then he’ll throw up zeros in the other innings, so we’ve got to solve that.”

As the Cardinals sit just two games behind the Miami Marlins for the third and final National League wild-card spot, Liberatore will need to finish his first half of the season on a strong note to bolster his position as a rotation piece.

St. Louis pitching coach Dusty Blake and Chaim Bloom, the team’s president of baseball operations, have weighed in about Liberatore.

“Dusty … had a long conversation with him, then he sat down and tried to figure it out with him,” Marmol said. “But when Chaim says we’re going to give this guy a shot, that’s part of it.”

In five career outings (four starts) against the Braves, Liberatore is 2-1 with a 3.26 ERA. His lone win in his last six starts came in Atlanta on June 30, when he allowed just one run on one hit and four walks, striking out nine in five innings of a 5-3 victory.

Converted starter Reynaldo Lopez (4-1, 3.18 ERA) will look to continue his solid return to the rotation for Atlanta on Saturday. After beginning the season as a starter, the right-hander appeared solely out of the bullpen until re-emerging in the rotation on June 26.

In two July starts, Lopez is 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA. Last time out, the veteran allowed one run on three hits across five innings, striking out five and walking two in a no-decision against the New York Mets on Monday. The Braves lost 7-6 in 10 innings.

“Lopez was great. It was a really nice performance by him,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “I think he’s finding his groove here, and that’s going to be big for us.”

Lopez, 32, is 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA in three career appearances (two starts) against St. Louis. He threw five innings of one-run, two hit-ball in a 5-1 win over the Cardinals on July 1.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Dodgers know they can count on Yoshinobu Yamamoto to throw a lot of innings, and that trait is of extra importance entering Saturday’s game against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Dodgers used seven pitchers Friday after Shohei Ohtani (left knee) was scratched from his start, so the bullpen is a bit beleaguered entering the middle contest of a three-game series. Arizona took advantage with an easy 9-3 victory in the opener.

Yamamoto (9-5, 2.49 ERA) will look to restore order. The right-hander has put together quality starts in 13 of 16 outings this season.

“The good thing is we’ve got Yamamoto going (Saturday), so we feel good about him taking on a lot of the game,” Roberts said Friday before the implosion of the bullpen game.

The 27-year-old Yamamoto has Tuesday’s All-Star Game on the horizon, and his availability to pitch in that contest may depend on how taxed he is Saturday.

Yamamoto has tossed seven or more innings on seven occasions, topped by 8 1/3 innings against the Chicago White Sox on June 13. In that contest, Yamamoto took a no-hitter into the ninth before Tristan Peters led off the frame with a homer.

In his last outing, Yamamoto matched his season best of 10 strikeouts in a 3-0 victory over the San Diego Padres. He gave up three hits and two walks over seven innings.

Yamamoto has won six of his past seven starts.

Yamamoto’s first start of the season came against the Diamondbacks on March 26. He gave up two runs and five hits over six innings of an 8-2 victory.

Yamamoto has excelled against Arizona, going 4-1 with a 2.08 ERA in seven career starts.

Corbin Carroll (2-for-20, six strikeouts) and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (1-for-11) have struggled against Yamamoto. Geraldo Perdomo (4-for-13), Ketel Marte (5-for-18) and Gabriel Moreno (2-for-12) each have homered against Yamamoto.

Tim Tawa, who is 1-for-3 against Yamamoto, was the Diamondbacks’ lead man in Friday’s assault.

Tawa went 3-for-4 with a homer and matched his career high of four RBIs.

“It felt good. We scored early, which was nice,” Tawa said. “Then we got punched in the mouth a little bit but we were able to respond and did a good job.”

Gabriel Moreno added two hits and two RBIs as Arizona won its second straight game.

While Ohtani couldn’t answer the bell as a pitcher, he did serve as the designated hitter and he’s scheduled to do so again Saturday. He also withdrew from Tuesday’s All-Star game and is slated to undergo an injection next week.

“If affects more of my pitching than the hitting side of the game, that’s the reason why,” Ohtani said through an interpreter on why he can still DH.

Ohtani’s power was in full display when he led off the game with an opposite-field homer to left.

The leadoff blast was Ohtani’s 32nd of his career and 26th with the Dodgers. He trails Mookie Betts (32) and former star Davey Lopes (28) on the franchise’s all-time list.

Andy Pages had three hits and homered right after Ohtani, but Los Angeles lost for the fifth time in its past 17 games.

Arizona will start right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (2-1, 4.84) on Saturday.

Pfaadt, 27, is back in the rotation and has won consecutive starts against the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres.

He gave up one run and three hits over 5 1/3 innings against the Giants on June 30 and blanked the Padres on four hits over five innings on Monday.

Pfaadt gave up two runs and three hits in an inning of relief against the Dodgers on June 3.

Pfaadt is 4-2 with a 5.32 ERA in nine career appearances (eight starts) against Los Angeles.

Betts (10-for-24, two homers) and Freddie Freeman (8-for-24, one homer) have fared well against Pfaadt.

–Field Level Media