Julio Rodríguez and Jorge Polanco hit three-run homers, Josh Naylor added a two-run drive and the Seattle Mariners took a 2-0 AL Championship Series lead by routing the Toronto 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 needing two more wins in the best-of-seven series to end that drought.
Toronto had just six hits, only one after the second inning, and had eight hits in the first two games. Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was 0 for 3 with a walk and is hitless in the series.
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. 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, 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.
Naylor, born in Mississauga, Ontario, fouled a ball his right foot in the first inning and looked uncomfortable in the batter’s box in the fifth, prompting manager Dan Wilson to come out and check on him. With Miles Mastrobuoni getting ready to come into the game if needed, Naylor convinced Wilson to leave him in and homered in the seventh.
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, down from 11 against New York.
Blue Jays outfielder Anthony Santander was scratched from the lineup because of a sore lower back. Davis Schneider replaced him and went 0 for 3 with a walk.
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 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.
