Seattle Mariners at Toronto Blue Jays
TORONTO (Interstat) — Julio Rodríguez and Jorge Polanco hit three-run homers, Josh Naylor added a two-run drive and the Seattle Mariners took a commanding 2-0 AL Championship Series lead by routing the Toronto Blue Jays 10-3 on Monday.
The Mariners, the only big league team never to host a World Series game, head home for Wednesday’s Game 3 needing two more wins in the best-of-seven series to end that drought. Seattle improved to 95-74 overall, while the Blue Jays fell to 97-71.
Rodríguez set the tone immediately, launching a 2-0 pitch from Toronto starter Trey Yesavage over the left-field wall in the first inning after Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch and Cal Raleigh walked. The three-run blast gave Seattle a lead it would not relinquish.
Toronto responded with two runs in the bottom of the first against Seattle starter Logan Gilbert. George Springer led off with a double and scored on a single by Nathan Lukes, who advanced to second on a throwing error by Naylor. Lukes later scored on a two-out single by Alejandro Kirk. The Blue Jays added another run in the second on an RBI single from Lukes that scored Ernie Clement, cutting the deficit to 3-2.
The game remained tight until the fifth, when the Mariners broke it open. Arozarena reached on an infield single and a throwing error, and after an intentional walk to Raleigh, Polanco hammered a three-run homer to center field off Yesavage, pushing the Seattle lead to 6-3.
Naylor put the game out of reach in the seventh, following a Polanco single with a towering two-run shot to right field. The Mariners added a final run in the inning on a sacrifice fly by J.P. Crawford.
Yesavage took the loss for Toronto, falling to 2-1 on the season after surrendering six runs on four hits over 4.1 innings. Eduard Bazardo earned the win for Seattle, improving to 6-0 after throwing two scoreless innings of relief. He was one of four Mariners relievers who combined for six shutout innings, allowing just one hit after the second inning.
The Blue Jays managed only six hits in the game, with just one coming after the second inning. They have been held to eight total hits through the first two games of the series. Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 0 for 3 with a walk and is hitless in the series.
A crowd of 44,814 at Rogers Centre watched the game, which lasted 3 hours, 28 minutes. The Mariners finished with 10 hits.
The result was a surprise to prognosticators, as Interstat’s game simulator had projected a 7-5 Toronto victory, and its ELO system gave the Blue Jays a 53.2 percent probability to win. Toronto had been installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of -1.5, and the total score of 13 went under the over/under line of 7.5.
The series now shifts to Seattle for Game 3 on Wednesday.