By IAN HARRISON Associated Press
TORONTO (AP) — With another triumph in Toronto, the surging Seattle Mariners moved two wins away from the team’s first World Series.
Jorge Polanco and Julio Rodríguez hit three-run homers, Josh Naylor added a two-run drive and the Mariners took a 2-0 AL Championship Series lead by routing the Blue Jays 10-3 on Monday.
Seattle, the only big league team never to host a World Series game, headed home for Wednesday’s Game 3 halfway to clinching this best-of-seven series and ending a drought for a team that started play in 1977.
“We’re super excited to get back home,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “We know what that atmosphere is going to be like.”
Toronto had just six hits, only one after the second inning, and had eight hits combined in the first two games. Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was 0 for 3 with a walk Monday and is hitless in the series.
“Slug hasn’t been there for us, has been there for them,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.
Rodríguez homered for a 3-0 lead three batters in against rookie Trey Yesavage, a 22-year-old making just his fifth big league start.
Nathan Lukes and Alejandro Kirk had RBI singles in the bottom half off Logan Gilbert, and Lukes’ run-scoring single tied the score in the second.
Polanco’s three-run homer off Louis Varland put Seattle back ahead 6-3 in the fifth.
“To get the three-run homer was a huge turnaround for us,” Wilson said.
Schneider blamed poor pitch location for Polanco’s pivotal homer.
“Didn’t execute up where we wanted to and paid the price,” he said.
J.P Crawford added an RBI single in the sixth and Naylor had a two-run homer in the seventh against Braydon Fisher.
Six of Polanco’s first seven hits this postseason drove in runs. He had the game-ending single in the 15th inning of Friday’s Division Series clincher against Detroit and went 2 for 4 with two RBIs in Seattle’s 3-1 opening ALCS win.
“He’s come up in situations where we’ve had guys on, and he’s been able to do the job and drive them in,” Wilson said. “That’s what this game is all about.”
Polanco’s two previous home runs this October both came off Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner.The roof was open on a breezy 62-degree day on the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday, but the sellout crowd of 44,814 had little to celebrate.
Seattle’s bullpen has combined for nine scoreless innings in the series, allowing just one hit. Winner Eduard Bazardo, Carlos Vargas and Emerson Hancock each pitched two innings.
Going back to the Division Series, Mariners relievers have thrown 18 consecutive shutout innings.
“Just an outstanding job again tonight from the bullpen,” Wilson said. “You can’t ask for more than that and these guys really delivered.”
Naylor, born in Mississauga, Ontario, fouled a ball off his right foot in the first inning and looked uncomfortable in the batter’s box in the fifth, prompting Wilson to come out and check on him. With Miles Mastrobuoni getting ready to come into the game, Naylor convinced Wilson to leave him in and homered in the seventh.
Naylor finished 3 for 5 with two RBIs.
“I was very thankful to get some hits, help the team out,” Naylor said. “Super cool to do it in front of my family, too. Very blessed to have them all here, all my friends. It was a really cool moment for them.”
Going back to the Division Series 15-inning clincher, Mariners relievers have thrown 18 straight shutout innings.
Yesavage, who took the loss, gave up three runs and four hits in four-plus innings. He set a Blue Jays postseason record by striking out 11 Yankees in 5 1/3 hitless innings in ALDS Game 2 but had two swings and misses on his splitter Monday, down from 11 against New York.
“I thought his stuff was pretty similar,” Schneider said. “Had the three strikeouts but wasn’t getting as much swing-and-miss. That was the biggest thing.”
Up next
Mariners RHP George Kirby is expected to start against Blue Jays RHP Shane Bieber, the 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner, in Game 3. Kirby struck out six and allowed one run and three hits in five innings in Game 5 of the Division Series. He doesn’t have a decision in two postseason starts. Bieber gave up three runs, two earned, and five hits in 2 2/3 innings in Game 3 against the Yankees.
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