Mariners take 2-0 ALCS lead, beat
Blue Jays 10-3 as Rodríguez, Polanco and Naylor homer
[October 14, 2025]
By IAN HARRISON
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.
[to top of second column] |
Seattle Mariners' Jorge Polanco, right, hits a three-run home run in
front of Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk, left, during the
fifth inning of Game 2 of baseball's American League Division Series
in Toronto, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
via AP)
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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