{"id":549802,"date":"2026-03-28T04:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/549802\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T04:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:58:13","slug":"gimenez-has-winning-hit-in-ninth-as-blue-jays-beat-athletics-3-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/549802\/","title":{"rendered":"Gim\u00e9nez has winning hit in ninth as Blue Jays beat Athletics 3-2"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO — – Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez drove in the winning run with a two-out single in the ninth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> beat the Athletics 3-2 on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Gim\u00e9nez had three RBI, including a two-run triple in the fifth.<\/p>\n

Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers<\/a> hit two home runs, including a game-tying blast off Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman<\/a> (1-0) in the top of the ninth, but Toronto used three straight hits off Justin Sterner<\/a> (0-1) to win it in the bottom half.<\/p>\n

Japanese infielder Kazuma Okamoto<\/a> singled, went to third on Ernie Clement’s high-bouncing double over third base, and scored when Gim\u00e9nez grounded a base hit up the middle.<\/p>\n

Making his major league debut after signing with the Blue Jays in January<\/a>, Okamoto finished 2 for 3. He struck out swinging in his first at-bat, walked and scored Toronto’s first run of the season in a two-run fifth, then lined his first hit in the seventh.<\/p>\n

Hoffman blew the save in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2025 World Series<\/a> when he gave up a game-tying homer to Miguel Rojas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Friday’s tying homer came one batter after Toronto successfully challenged umpire Marvin Hudson’s two-strike call on Nick Kurtz<\/a> to begin the ninth, with Kurtz called out on strikes.<\/p>\n

Before Friday’s game, Blue Jays sluggers George Springer<\/a> and Vladimir Guerrero Jr<\/a>. stood at home plate to address fans, then counted down to the unveiling of a banner celebrating Toronto’s first American League pennant since 1993.<\/p>\n

Kevin Gausman<\/a> set a Blue Jays opening day record by striking out 11 batters in six innings. Gausman allowed one run and one hit.<\/p>\n

Gausman didn’t walk a batter in his third career opening day start, his first with Toronto.<\/p>\n

Langeliers had the lone hit off Gausman, a solo homer in the fourth.<\/p>\n

The A’s lost for the fifth time in their past six opening day games.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

RHP Dylan Cease<\/a> makes his Blue Jays debut Saturday afternoon against Athletics LHP Jeffrey Springs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a>br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO — – Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez drove in the winning run with a two-out single in the ninth inning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[244763,9202,352,363,99,364],"class_list":{"0":"post-549802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-244763","9":"tag-athletics-athletics","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}