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SEATTLE (AP) — Julio Rodríguez hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning and the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 in Game 2 of their AL Division Series on Saturday to even the series.

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.

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 Seattle.

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.

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 reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal with two outs in the sixth.

Polanco became the fourth Mariners player with a multi-homer game in the postseason, joining Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez and Jay Buhner, who all accomplished the feat in 1995.

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 Cleveland in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, fanned nine across seven innings on Sunday. He limited the Mariners to five hits and walked one.

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.

RHP Logan Gilbert starts for Seattle in Game 3 against Tigers RHP Jack Flaherty. Gilbert has one game of postseason experience, having lost Game 1 of the 2022 ALDS against the Astros in Houston. Flaherty is 5-3 with a 5.05 ERA in 11 postseason games.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

TORONTO (AP) — Rookie Trey Yesavage set a Blue Jays postseason record by striking out 11 in 5 1/3 no-hit innings, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit the first postseason grand slam in team history and Toronto beat the New York Yankees 13-7 on Sunday to take a 2-0 lead in the ALDS.

Daulton Varsho had two home runs among his four extra base hits, and Ernie Clement and George Springer also both homered as Toronto reached double figures in hits (15) and runs for the second straight game.

The Blue Jays had three home runs among their 14 hits Saturday in a 10-1 victory. They have as many home runs (eight) as 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 and Ben Rice had two hits and two RBIs in a five-run seventh but Toronto won for the eighth time in nine home meetings with New York. The Blue Jays went 2-4 in six games at Yankee Stadium, where the series shifts for Game 3 on Tuesday night.

Yesavage (1-0) was selected by Toronto with the No. 20 pick last year in the amateur draft. The 22-year-old right-hander rose through four minor league levels this season before joining the Blue Jays and going 1-0 in three September starts.

Known for his elite split-finger fastball, Yesavage set a Blue Jays record by striking out nine Rays batters in his Sept. 15 debut. Eight of his 11 strikeouts Sunday came on the splitter. The other three came on fastballs that reached 96 mph.

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.

Left-hander Justin Bruihl came on to face Grisham after Yesavage threw 78 pitches, 48 for strikes. Manager John Schneider was booed as he came out to remove Yesavage with Toronto leading 12-0. The crowd of 44,7564 then roared until Yesavage came out for a curtain call, lifting his arms over his head at the top of the dugout steps.

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 3-plus innings. He gave up seven runs in 33 1/3 innings in five September starts.

Fried went 11-1 with a 1.82 ERA in 16 starts after a Yankees loss in the regular season, but suffered 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 RHP Shane Bieber, the 2020 AL Cy Young winner with Cleveland, is scheduled to start against Yankees LHP Carlos Rodón in Tuesday’s Game 3. 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 Wild Card round against Boston, striking out six in six innings.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Shota Imanaga is getting the call for the Chicago Cubs when they attempt to tie their NL Division Series with the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell announced at his Sunday news conference that Imanaga would be the starting pitcher for Game 2 of the best-of-five series. The Brewers haven’t yet named their Game 2 starter.

“I think he’s a thinking-man’s competitor, and he also pitches with a lot of joy on the mound while competing at a really high level,” Counsell said. “He doesn’t sometimes come across as, like, this fierce competitor because he’s really joyful on the mound. So that doesn’t come across as fierce necessarily. But I think he’s a fierce competitor.”

The Brewers took a 1-0 series lead on Saturday by scoring all their runs in the first two innings of a 9-3 victory

Imanaga is very familiar with the Brewers. He started against them three times during the regular season and went 1-2 with a 3.57 ERA in those games.

The 32-year-old left-hander went 9-8 overall with a 3.73 ERA in 25 regular-season starts. He also allowed two runs over four innings Wednesday in the Cubs’ 3-0 Game 2 loss to the San Diego Padres in the NL Wild Card Series.

Counsell praised the approach Imanaga has shown in each start in his two seasons since joining the Cubs on a four-year, $53 million contract. Imanaga went 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA in 2024 to finish fourth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.

“He’s trying to figure out a way to get you out, and he’s trying to figure out a way to be better, and that’s going on pitch to pitch,” Counsell said. “That’s going on between starts. He’s really good at that part of it. We’ve seen him pitch for two years, and we’ve seen him succeed for two years, and that’s how he does it to me. He’s a fun player to watch compete. There’s no question about it.”

Chicago reliever Ben Brown said the Cubs remain upbeat after losing the opening game of the series. He credited veterans Justin Turner, Dansby Swanson, Carlos Santana and Drew Pomeranz — who have a combined 168 games of postseason experience — for making sure everyone stayed grounded.

“It would be silly for us to be beat up losing one game,” Brown said. “I don’t think anyone was wearing it yesterday. I don’t think that the vibes were super low in the clubhouse after a loss. It actually felt like we were just where we needed to be.”

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

SEATTLE (AP) — Zach McKinstry singled home the tiebreaking run with two outs in the 11th inning and the Detroit Tigers outlasted the Seattle Mariners for a 3-2 victory in Game 1 of their AL Division Series on Saturday.

Kerry Carpenter hit a two-run homer in the fifth for the resurgent Tigers, who squandered a huge lead in the AL Central and nearly collapsed entirely down the stretch before squeezing into the playoffs.

After winning their Wild Card Series at division champion Cleveland in a deciding Game 3, they can take a commanding 2-0 lead in this best-of-five matchup against AL West champion Seattle with dominant ace Tarik Skubal on the mound Sunday.

In the first extra-inning game of this postseason, McKinstry pounced on the first pitch he saw from reliever Carlos Vargas, a 99.6 mph sinker, and grounded it up the middle to score Spencer Torkelson from second base.

Torkelson, who walked leading off the 11th, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Vargas earlier in the inning.

Unlike during the regular season, there is no automatic runner placed at second base to begin extra innings in the postseason.

Will Vest worked two perfect innings for the win, and Keider Montero got three outs for his first major league save. Montero extended the scoreless start to his postseason career and put the finishing touches on seven innings of one-run ball by Detroit’s bullpen.

The Mariners struck first, thanks to a solo homer by Julio Rodríguez in the fourth inning. Rodríguez, fresh off his second season with at least 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, launched an elevated four-seam fastball from rookie Troy Melton, who was making just his fifth career start.

Seattle’s lead didn’t last long, though. Carpenter capitalized on an elevated fastball from right-hander George Kirby in a two-strike count, depositing it into the right-field seats to give the Tigers a 2-1 advantage.

Left-handed reliever Gabe Speier was warming up in the Seattle bullpen, but manager Dan Wilson elected to have Kirby face the left-handed-hitting Carpenter.

It was the fifth career homer for Carpenter off Kirby, making him the fourth player in major league history with five or more hits off a particular pitcher — and all of them home runs. It also was the second career postseason homer for Carpenter, who set a career high with 26 during the regular season.

Kirby was otherwise sharp in his second postseason start, striking out five across five innings.

Rodríguez ensured the Mariners did not go down easily, poking an RBI single to right in the sixth that tied it at 2.

Seattle closer Andrés Muñoz worked two scoreless innings, the first time he had done so since he was a rookie in 2019 with San Diego.

The Mariners didn’t get hits from any players besides Rodríguez and AL MVP contender Cal Raleigh, who chipped in three singles for his third career three-hit game in the postseason.

Mariners RHP Luis Castillo is expected to start against Skubal in Game 2. Castillo is 1-2 with a 1.83 ERA in 19 2/3 career postseason innings with 19 strikeouts. Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, pitched 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the Wild Card Series opener against Cleveland. He has a 2.03 ERA in four postseason appearances.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

TORONTO (AP) — Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton had their chance.

When both big sluggers came up empty, the New York Yankees’ leaky bullpen failed to get them another one.

New York trailed by two runs and had the bases loaded with nobody out as Judge stepped to the plate against Toronto Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman in the sixth inning of their AL Division Series opener Saturday.

But what looked like a prime opportunity soon fizzled, and the Yankees’ shaky relief corps couldn’t keep the game close after that as New York lost 10-1.

Gausman struck out Judge on a 3-2 splitter for the first out of the sixth.

“That’s a huge, huge strikeout obviously to (a guy) who is going to be the MVP of the league, probably,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

​​Cody Bellinger followed with a walk, forcing in New York’s lone run, but Gausman finished his outing by getting Ben Rice to pop out.

“Varland executed a good heater to G that he was late on,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Just weren’t able to punch through like we needed to in an inning where we had a chance to have a big one.”

Gausman was full of praise for Varland, who joined Toronto in a deadline deal from Minnesota.

“You’ve kind of seen him take his game to another level when he needs to,” Gausman said. “That was one of the greatest trades we’ve ever made.”

Judge went 2 for 4 with a single and a double Saturday, making him the only Yankees player to reach base more than once. He reached safely in five of 12 plate appearances in the Wild Card Series win over Boston, going 4 for 11 with an RBI.

Stanton went 0 for 4 on Saturday and has just one hit this postseason.

While Toronto’s bullpen sparkled in Game 1, with four pitchers combining on 3 1/3 scoreless innings, New York’s relievers didn’t fare so well. After starter Luis Gil exited with two outs in the third, five Yankees pitchers allowed eight runs and 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Luke Weaver didn’t retire any of the three batters he faced, leaving after Andrés Giménez’s RBI single through a drawn-in infield. Weaver has not retired any of the six batters he has faced this postseason.

The one bright spot for New York’s bullpen Saturday was right-hander Camilo Doval. He provided two scoreless innings on just 20 pitches.

“That was really efficient, really good,” Boone said, adding he hopes to have Doval available in Game 2 of the best-of-five series on Sunday.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jackson Chourio went 3 for 3 and drove in three runs in the first two innings before departing with a hamstring injury as the Milwaukee Brewers trounced the Chicago Cubs 9-3 in their NL Division Series opener Saturday.

Chourio became the first player to have three hits in the first two innings of a playoff game. But his availability for Monday’s Game 2 in the best-of-five series is unclear.

Chourio, who missed a month of the regular season with a strained right hamstring, left with tightness in that hamstring after beating out a bases-loaded infield single.

That’s just about the only thing that went wrong for the Brewers, who grabbed a 9-1 lead in the first two innings in a matchup of NL Central rivals.

Milwaukee’s Freddy Peralta worked 5 2/3 innings, and the only runs he allowed came on homers from Michael Busch and Ian Happ. Nico Hoerner added a solo shot off Jared Koenig in the eighth inning.

Peralta’s nine strikeouts tied Don Sutton, Yovani Gallardo and Brandon Woodruff for the Brewers’ single-game playoff record.

Brewers-Cubs games in Milwaukee generally have divided crowds because of all the people who make the 90-mile trip from Chicago, but that wasn’t the case Saturday. The vast majority of spectators were Brewers fans waving yellow towels and booing Cubs manager Craig Counsell.

Counsell grew up in the Milwaukee area and is the winningest manager in Brewers history, but he left for Chicago after the 2023 season. He has been jeered whenever his name has been mentioned over the American Family Field loudspeaker since he departed.

Counsell’s decision to start Matthew Boyd on short rest didn’t work out. The All-Star left-hander was lifted with two out in the first.

The Brewers scored four runs or fewer in their last nine regular-season games. They had gone 2-11 in their last 13 playoff games, scoring over four runs in just one of those contests and failing to exceed five runs in any of them.

This time, they had six runs by the end of the first, matching their highest scoring playoff inning in franchise history.

After Busch opened the game with a 389-foot drive over the wall in right-center, Chourio, Brice Turang and William Contreras started the bottom half of the first with consecutive doubles.

Contreras scored from second when Hoerner mishandled a slow grounder from Sal Frelick. Blake Perkins capped an 11-pitch at bat with a two-out RBI single to center.

Michael Soroka walked Joey Ortiz to load the bases and allowed a two-run single to Chourio.

Boyd had only three days of rest after throwing 58 pitches in the Cubs’ 3-1 Wild Card Series Game 1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday.

Milwaukee added three more runs in the second. Caleb Durbin delivered a two-run single before Chourio’s infield hit made it 9-1.

Chicago’s Aaron Civale, who started the season with Milwaukee, and Ben Brown combined for 6 1/3 innings of shutout relief.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos was benched on Saturday for Game 1 of the NL Division Series against Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Shohei Ohtani.

The right-handed-hitting Castellanos said he had “communication” issues earlier this season when he was scratched from the lineup by manager Rob Thomson.

Castellanos played 147 games and hit just .250 with 72 RBIs this season a year after he played in all 162. Max Kepler got the start in right field against LA, batting seventh.

Castellanos played all 34 games for the Phillies over the last three postseasons. He became the first player in MLB history to hit multiple homers in consecutive playoff games when he did it against Atlanta in 2023.

The two-time All-Star has lost playing time in a crowded outfield that includes Kepler, Harrison Bader, Brandon Marsh and Weston Wilson. He said in September in Arizona that communication with Thomson over his four-year tenure with the club has been “ questionable, at least in my experience.”

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.