The Toronto Blue Jays beat Los Angeles 5-4 on Friday night thanks to a walk-off home run by rookie Addison Barger. For Barger, it was the first walk-off of his career, but the evening was also historic for Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk.
With 2 for 4 and two RBIs, Kirk surpassed Russell Martin and is now the Blue Jays’ fourth-most hitter in team history.
This note from @StatsCentre appeared before the game:
After a disappointing 2023 and a mediocre first half of this season, Alejandro Kirk has been one of his team’s most successful hitters over the last 7 weeks. After two doubles in last night’s 5-3 win, he’s just 1 behind 5th place on this @BlueJays list of catchers tonight
After a disappointing 2023 and a mediocre first half of this season, Alejandro Kirk has been one of his team’s most successful hitters over the last 7 weeks. After two doubles in last night’s 5-3 win, he is now just 1 point behind 5th place in this @BlueJays List of catchers pic.twitter.com/20dz2dx7RX
– StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) 23 August 2024
Ernie Whitt (888), Pat Borders (590), Darrin Fletcher (490) and Greg Zaun (417) are now the only catchers ahead of Kirk on this list. Kirk has only a .248 batting average this year, but is a former All-Star for Toronto. He has four home runs and 38 RBIs.
Martin, 41, is a Canadian native who also had the chance to play for the Blue Jays from 2015 to 2018. Overall, he was a 14-year veteran who made four All-Star teams and won a Gold Glove. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Jays. He hit a career-high 23 home runs with Toronto in 2015 and also stole 21 bases in 2007. He helped the Blue Jays to the ALCS in two consecutive years (2015-2016).
The Blue Jays will face the Angels again on Saturday afternoon at 3:07 p.m. ET.
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