TORONTO — Toronto Blue Jays fans couldn’t get enough of Trey Yesavage on Sunday afternoon.
The New York Yankees have probably had their fill of the rookie right-hander for some time.
Yesavage set Toronto’s postseason record by striking out 11 batters in 5 1/3 hitless innings on the mound, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit the first postseason grand slam in franchise history as the top-seeded Blue Jays beat the fourth-seeded Yankees 13-7 to take a 2-0 lead in their American League Division Series.
Daulton Varsho had two home runs among his four extra-base hits, and Ernie Clement and George Springer also went deep as Toronto reached double figures in hits (15) and runs for the second straight game.
The Blue Jays had three homers among their 14 hits Saturday in a 10-1 victory. They have more home runs (eight) than strikeouts (seven) through two games.
Varsho went 4-for-5 with two doubles, scored four runs and drove in four. Guerrero went 3-for-5 and scored twice.
Cody Bellinger homered and drove in three runs for the visitors, and Ben Rice added two hits and two RBIs for the Yankees, but Toronto won for the eighth time in its past nine home meetings with New York. The Blue Jays went 2-4 in six games against their AL East Division rivals during the 2025 regular season at Yankee Stadium, where the best-of-five series shifts for Game 3 on Tuesday night with New York having no margin for error.
Yesavage (1-0) was selected by Toronto with the No. 20 pick of the 2024 MLB draft. The 22-year-old rose through four minor league levels this season before joining the Blue Jays and going 1-0 in three September starts.
“I just couldn’t be happier for him,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “The journey he’s been on this year is unbelievable.”
Yesavage needed fewer than four innings to beat Toronto’s previous record for postseason strikeouts — eight by Juan Guzmán, Dave Stieb and David Price (who hit the mark twice).
Known for his elite split-finger fastball, Yesavage set a Blue Jays record for most strikeouts in a first MLB game with nine in his Sept. 15 debut against the Tampa Bay Rays. Eight of his 11 strikeouts Sunday came on the splitter. The other three came on fastballs that reached 96 mph.
“I was just doing what I feel comfortable doing, throwing splits late in the count,” Yesavage said. “It just so happens they were swinging and missing at a bunch of them and chasing them down.”
Yesavage (22 years, 69 days) is the second-youngest pitcher in MLB history to strike out 10 or more in a postseason start. John Candelaria was 21 years, 335 days old when he was on the mound for the Pittsburgh Pirates and fanned 14 against the Cincinnati Reds on Oct. 7, 1975.
Yesavage opened the game by striking out Trent Grisham on a splitter. He walked Aaron Judge on four pitches, then fanned Bellinger and Rice to start a streak of 12 straight outs that ended when Jazz Chisholm Jr. reached on Guerrero’s fielding error in the fifth.
Yesavage responded by getting Ryan McMahon to pop up and fanning Anthony Volpe for his 11th strikeout.
Yesavage struck out six straight over the third and fourth innings as Volpe, Austin Wells, Grisham, Judge, Bellinger and Rice were retired.
“We just didn’t have an answer for the split,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He was on his game.”
Left-hander Justin Bruihl came on to face Grisham after Yesavage threw 78 pitches, 48 for strikes. Schneider was jeered as he came out to remove Yesavage with Toronto leading 12-0 and the no-hitter intact.
“I’ll take getting booed like that every time,” Schneider said.
The crowd of 44,764 then roared until Yesavage came out for a curtain call, lifting his arms over his head at the top of the dugout steps.
“I know the fans probably wanted me to stay out there, but it’s the smart thing to do up 12 runs, to not push it,” Yesavage said.
Bruihl retired Grisham on a grounder before Judge reached on an infield single for New York’s first hit. Bellinger followed with a homer.
Yankees left-hander Max Fried (0-1) allowed seven runs and eight hits in three-plus innings. He gave up seven runs in 33 1/3 innings in five September starts.
“Just not his sharpest, obviously,” Boone said.
Fried went 11-1 with a 1.82 ERA in 16 starts after a Yankees loss in the regular season, but he endured another difficult start in Toronto. He was 0-1 with a 6.35 ERA in two regular-season road starts against the Blue Jays, giving up 10 runs (eight earned) five walks and nine hits, including two home runs.
Toronto right-hander Shane Bieber, the 2020 AL Cy Young winner, and Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodón are the scheduled starting pitchers for Game 3 in the Bronx.
Bieber went 4-2 with a 3.57 ERA in seven starts after returning from elbow surgery in August. Rodón allowed three runs and four hits in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox, striking out six batters in as many innings pitched.
Mariners 3, Tigers 2
SEATTLE — Julio Rodríguez came through in a big moment for the Seattle Mariners.
Rodríguez hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning, and the second-seeded Mariners beat the sixth-seeded Detroit Tigers to even their ALDS at a game apiece.
With the game knotted at 2-2 and one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh doubled with one out. Shortly after, Rodríguez doubled home Raleigh to put the Mariners in front for good.
“In games like this, I feel like any situation is clutch,” said Rodríguez, who has recorded an extra-base hit in a franchise-record five consecutive postseason games and has six extra-base hits in the first seven playoff games of his MLB career.
“I feel like the biggest pride I take is helping the team win. In any situation that I can, I feel like that’s what makes me feel good. And listen, if they want to say that I’m clutch, too, OK. Cool. So be it.”
Seattle closer Andrès Muñoz retired the Tigers in order for the save one night after throwing two innings in a 3-2 loss in 11 innings.
Jorge Polanco homered twice for the Mariners, the AL West champions.
After going scoreless against Seattle starter Luis Castillo and three Mariners relievers, the Tigers tied the game against Matt Brash in the top of the eighth.
Gleyber Torres worked a leadoff walk, and Riley Greene reached on a fielder’s choice that was misfielded by Seattle first baseman Josh Naylor for an error. Spencer Torkelson followed up with a double into the right-field corner to tie the score at 2-2.
Seattle regained the lead in the bottom of the inning.
Raleigh, who led the majors in home runs this season with 60, lined Kyle Finnegan’s pitch into the right-field corner and slid headfirst into second base. Rodríguez followed with a double of his own, sending the sellout crowd of 47,431 at T-Mobile Park into a frenzy.
“I give our guys a ton of credit,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Number one, this was a bounce-back game for us, and they did just that. And to lose the lead late like that and to come right back and score a run was huge. I thought those at-bats by Julio and Cal were tremendous and just a huge momentum shift back to our dugout.”
Polanco got the Mariners on the board with a one-out solo homer over the wall in left-center field in the bottom of the fourth inning. He added another one off 2024 AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal with two outs in the sixth.
Polanco became the fourth Seattle player with a multihomer game in the postseason, joining Jay Buhner, Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez, who all accomplished the feat in 1995.
“I just had a good approach,” said Polanco, who added a single in the eighth and finished 3-for-4. “I stayed through the middle so I could recognize the secondary stuff. Like I said, just put a good swing on it.”
Skubal, who struck out 14 batters to set the AL record for most strikeouts in a postseason game by a left-handed starter while beating the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 of their AL Wild Card Series this past week, fanned nine across seven innings on Sunday. He limited the Mariners to five hits and walked one batter.
“His stuff was good,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said of Skubal. “Polanco … hits the homer and hit another homer. You know, you don’t see the same guy get good swings against Tarik very often.
“But all in all, he did a tremendous job of keeping us in the game and keeping it right where it was.”
Castillo, meanwhile, maneuvered through 4 2/3 scoreless innings. In the fifth, he surrendered his first hit of the game, a two-out single by Gleyber Torres that put runners on the corners. But left-hander Gabe Speier was summoned to face Game 1 hero Kerry Carpenter and struck him out to end the inning.
Castillo now has a 1.49 career postseason ERA, having given up four earned runs and 18 hits in 24 1/3 innings while striking out 22 and walking five.
“Just a great ballgame from Rock,” Wilson said of Castillo. “And at a time when we really needed it. It seems like he’s done that all along.
“And down the stretch we had some big wins where he kind of stepped up, and tonight was another opportunity for him, and he did exactly what we needed him to do.”
Game 3 is Tuesday in Detroit, where the scheduled starting pitchers are right-handers Logan Gilbert for the Mariners and Jack Flaherty for the Tigers.
Gilbert has one game of postseason experience, having lost Game 1 of the 2022 ALDS on the road against the Houston Astros. Flaherty is 5-3 with a 5.05 ERA in 11 postseason games.