With another emphatic victory north of the border, the surging Seattle Mariners are two wins away from their first-ever World Series. Jorge Polanco and Julio Rodríguez each hit three-run home runs, Josh Naylor added a two-run shot, and the Mariners pounded the Toronto Blue Jays 10-3 on Monday to seize a 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series.
Seattle, the only Major League Baseball team never to host a World Series game, will return home to T-Mobile Park for Game 3 on Wednesday halfway to clinching the best-of-seven series — and ending a drought that stretches back to the franchise’s inception in 1977.
Rodríguez set the tone early, launching a three-run homer in the first inning off Toronto rookie Trey Yesavage, who was making just his fifth big-league start. The 22-year-old had dazzled in his ALDS debut against the Yankees but faltered against Seattle’s potent lineup.
Toronto briefly rallied, getting RBI singles from Nathan Lukes and Alejandro Kirk in the bottom of the first before Lukes tied it 3-3 in the second. But that was as close as the Blue Jays would get.
Polanco — who has been a postseason force for Seattle — crushed a three-run shot off Louis Varland in the fifth to restore a 6-3 lead. It was Polanco’s third homer of the postseason and continued his streak of clutch hitting: six of his first seven hits this October have driven in runs.
J.P. Crawford added an RBI single in the sixth, and Naylor, playing through discomfort after fouling a ball off his right foot earlier in the game, drilled a two-run homer in the seventh off Braydon Fisher to put the game out of reach.
Naylor, a Mississauga native, finished 3-for-5 with two RBI in front of friends and family. He waved off manager Dan Wilson’s attempt to remove him after appearing hobbled in the fifth inning — then responded with a towering homer two innings later.
While Seattle’s offense dominated, its bullpen continued to be untouchable. Winner Eduard Bazardo, Carlos Vargas, and Emerson Hancock combined for six scoreless innings, allowing just one hit. Mariners relievers have now thrown 18 consecutive shutout innings dating back to the Division Series.
The Blue Jays, meanwhile, were held to just six hits — and only one after the second inning. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 0-for-3 with a walk and remains hitless in the series. Across the two games, Toronto’s lineup has mustered only eight total hits.
Yesavage (0-1) took the loss, yielding three runs on four hits in four-plus innings. After striking out 11 Yankees in 5 1/3 hitless innings in the ALDS, he managed just two whiffs on his signature splitter against Seattle’s disciplined hitters.
The game unfolded under an open roof at Rogers Centre on a breezy, 62-degree Canadian Thanksgiving afternoon before a restless sellout crowd of 44,814 that had little to cheer for.
Polanco, who delivered the walk-off single in Seattle’s 15-inning Division Series clincher against Detroit, continued his October magic, going 2-for-4 with three RBI.
The series shifts to Seattle for Game 3 on Wednesday. Mariners right-hander George Kirby is expected to start against Blue Jays ace Shane Bieber, the 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner. Kirby struck out six and allowed one run over five innings in Game 5 of the Division Series, while Bieber gave up three runs (two earned) in 2 2/3 innings in his lone ALDS appearance.
With two convincing wins in Toronto, the Mariners are now just two victories away from history — and a long-awaited World Series in Seattle.
