Esmerlyn Valdez hits first career home run as Pirates beat Blue Jays 4-1 to avoid sweep
Esmerlyn Valdez hit his first career home run as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1. The victory allowed the Pirates to avoid a three-game sweep. Spencer Horwitz and Oneil Cruz also contributed with home runs in the game.
- ▪Esmerlyn Valdez was promoted from Triple-A Indianapolis and had previously gone 0 for 7 before his home run.
- ▪Pirates reliever Dennis Santana traded a signed bat and cap to a young fan for the ball Valdez hit out of the park.
- ▪Blue Jays starter Dylan Cease left the game due to a sore left hamstring after pitching 4 2/3 innings.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/esmerlyn-valdez-hits-first-career-192842343.html","headline":"Esmerlyn Valdez hits first career home run as Pirates beat Blue Jays 4-1 to avoid sweep","datePublished":"2026-05-24T19:28:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-24T19:28:42.000Z","keywords":["Toronto Blue Jays","Pittsburgh Pirates","Esmerlyn Valdez","Blue Jays","Dylan Cease","Mitch Keller","Spencer Horwitz","Oneil Cruz","Dennis Santana","Chase Lee","Gregory Soto","Lenyn Sosa","Carmen Mlodzinski","Ernie Clement","Trey Yesavage","Janson Junk","Daulton Varsho","Chicago","Miami"],"description":"Esmerlyn Valdez homered for his first career hit, Spencer Horwitz and Oneil Cruz also connected and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Yahoo Sports.