TORONTO — Julio Rodriguez and Jorge Polanco hit three-run homers, Josh Naylor added a two-run drive and the Seattle Mariners took a 2-0 lead in the AL Championship Series by routing the Toronto Blue Jays 10-3 on Monday.
Seattle, the only big league team never to make a World Series, heads 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.
Rodriguez 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 of the first inning off Logan Gilbert, and Nathan 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. He went 2-for-4 with two RBIs in Seattle’s 3-1 opening ALCS win. Polanco’s two previous home runs this October came off Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner.
He became the first player in MLB history to have a go-ahead hit in the fifth inning or later of three consecutive playoff games, according to ESPN Research.
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 off his right foot in the first inning and looked uncomfortable in the batter’s box in the fifth, prompting Mariners manager Dan Wilson to check on him. With Miles Mastrobuoni getting ready to come into the game if needed, Naylor convinced Wilson to leave him in, and he homered in the seventh.
Yesavage, who took the loss, gave up 3 runs and 4 hits in 4-plus innings. He set a Blue Jays postseason record by striking out 11 Yankees in 5 hitless innings in ALDS Game 2 but had just two swing-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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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