The Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday homered twice and exploited three Seattle errors to beat the Mariners 6-2 and force a decisive Game 7 in their American League Championship Series.
Addison Barger and Vladimir Guerrero Jr homered for the Blue Jays, while rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage, making only his sixth MLB start, gave up just one run in 5-2/3 innings.
Yesavage struck out seven and induced three straight inning-ending double plays, two of them with the bases loaded.
Photo: AP
“He comes every day and gives it all he has,” Guerrero said of 22-year-old Yesavage, who rose through the minor leagues this year and burst into the majors last month. “It’s amazing playing defense behind him. He brings the energy, he’s young. He wants to win so bad.”
Yesavage, who was tagged for five runs by the Mariners in Game 2, said that he just wanted to compete with the Blue Jays’ season on the line.
“This was the most electric, energized crowd I’ve ever played in front of,” Yesavage said. “I was getting my stuff in the box early, getting ahead of batters and letting my defense work. Getting three double plays in back-to-back-to-back innings, to get out of two bases-loaded jams, that is huge, and I knew my defense had my back.”
The Blue Jays knotted the series at 3-3 and were to host Game 7 yesterday. The winners of the series face defending champions the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series starting on Friday.
“Getting to this point and forcing a Game 7 with everybody’s effort, everybody’s opportunity to shine, is a real testament to how close and how tight-knit this team is,” Yesavage said.
Toronto are trying to return to the World Series for the first time since they won back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993.
The Mariners — like the Blue Jays an expansion team in 1977 — are the only franchise never to make it to MLB’s championship showcase.
They damaged their own cause with three fielding errors, two of them in the second inning as the Blue Jays took a 2-0 lead.
Toronto made it 4-0 in the bottom of the third when Ernie Clement belted a triple off the left-field wall and Barger launched his second home run of the series — a blast to right-center field off Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert.
After Toronto’s third straight inning-ending double play left the Mariners scoreless through the fifth, Guerrero led off the bottom of the frame with his sixth home run of the playoffs, his blast to left field putting the Blue Jays up 5-0.
Seattle’s Canadian first baseman Josh Naylor broke through in the sixth inning for a two-out home run against Yesavage.
A single from Randy Arozarena then spelled the end of Yesavage’s night and reliever Louis Varland gave up a single to Seattle’s Game 5 grand slam hero Eugenio Suarez — whose ball down the right-field line allowed Arozarena to score from first base as the Mariners cut the deficit to 5-2.
Toronto tacked on another run in the bottom of the seventh.
Hit by a pitch with one out in the inning, Guerrero reached second on Alejandro Kirk’s single to center and scored on catcher Cal Raleigh’s throwing error to third after a wild pitch from Matt Brash.
Toronto, who had the best regular-season home record in the American League, dropped the first two games of the series at Rogers Centre, but now have a chance to clinch at home.
However, Seattle manager Dan Wilson said his players can shake off their sloppy play and finish the job.
“This is a team that has done the little things all season,” Wilson said. “It’s also a team that has bounced back a lot and this is a chance for us to do that again.”
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