TORONTO (AP) — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his sixth home run of the postseason, rookie Trey Yesavage struck out seven in 5 2/3 innings and the Toronto Blue Jays forced a Game 7 in the American League Championship Series by beating the Seattle Mariners 6-2 on Sunday night.
The series will be decided Monday night in Toronto, the second Game 7 in Blue Jays history. Toronto lost to Kansas City in the 1985 ALCS.
Seattle, the only big league team without a pennant,
will play in a postseason Game 7 for the first time. The winner faces the NL champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series beginning Friday.
The Blue Jays turned three double plays behind Yesavage, two of them to escape bases-loaded jams. That made Toronto the first team to induce consecutive bases-loaded, inning-ending double plays in a postseason game. They’re only the fourth team to turn two in a single postseason game.
Toronto also took advantage of Seattle’s season-high three errors. By comparison, the Blue Jays have made four errors in 10 playoff games.
Guerrero’s sixth career postseason homer — all this year — tied him with José Bautista and Joe Carter for the most in Blue Jays history. Bautista threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game.
Addison Barger homered and drove in three runs for the Blue Jays, who had lost their previous four games when facing postseason elimination. That streak stretched to Game 5 of the 2016 ALCS against Cleveland and included wild-card round losses to Tampa Bay in 2020, Seattle in 2022 and Minnesota in 2023.
Guerrero’s leadoff homer in the fifth made it 5-0 and chased Mariners starter Logan Gilbert. The right-hander allowed five runs, four earned, and seven hits in four innings.
Yesavage took a shutout into the sixth. He was charged with two runs and six hits, five of them singles. Five of his strikeouts came on his split-finger fastball, as did both double-play grounders with the bases loaded.
The 22-year-old Yesavage threw a season-high 31 splitters. He got 10 whiffs on splitters and five more on sliders.
Three of Yesavage’s six major league starts have come in the playoffs. He’s won twice in three starts this postseason after winning one of three outings in the regular season.
The Mariners used two walks and a single to load the bases against Yesavage in the third but were denied when slugger Cal Raleigh grounded into a 3-6-1 double play. Raleigh’s first-pitch grounder came off his bat at 101 mph.
Raleigh finished 0 for 3 with three strikeouts.
Seattle came up empty again with another bases-loaded opportunity in the fourth when J.P. Crawford grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
The Mariners broke through and chased Yesavage in the sixth. Josh Naylor's solo shot was his third home run of the playoffs. Yesavage exited after Randy Arozarena’s base hit, and Eugenio Suárez greeted Louis Varland with an RBI single.
Toronto took advantage of fielding errors by Julio Rodríguez in center field and Suárez at third base to score twice in the second, when Barger and Isiah Kiner-Falefa had RBI singles.
Ernie Clement hit a two-out triple off the left-field wall in the third and scored when Barger homered, his second of the potseason.
George Springer started at designated hitter for the Blue Jays and went 0 for 4 with a walk. Springer exited in the seventh inning of Friday’s Game 5 loss in Seattle after he was hit on the right kneecap by a 95.6 mph pitch from Bryan Woo.
Guerrero was hit by a pitch from Seattle reliever Matt Brash in the seventh. Guerrero moved to second on Alejandro Kirk’s single and was advancing on a wild pitch when he scored on Raleigh’s throwing error.
Toronto is expected to start RHP Shane Bieber on Monday. Bieber allowed two runs and four hits over six innings in Game 3, a 13-4 win for the Blue Jays. He struck out eight and walked one as he bounced back from a poor outing against the Yankees in the Division Series.
Seattle RHP George Kirby, who allowed eight runs and eight hits, including three homers, over four innings in Game 3, is lined up to start for the Mariners.
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