Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – The Toronto Blue Jays knocked the New York Yankees out of the Major League Baseball playoffs on Wednesday as the Phillies fended off elimination against the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Toronto triumphed 5-2 at Yankee Stadium to win their best-of-five American League division series 3-1. The Phillies, fighting for their playoff lives after dropping the first two games in Philadelphia, downed the Dodgers 8-2 in Los Angeles to claw back to 2-1 in their National League series. The Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs also stayed alive.
Detroit beat the Seattle Mariners 9-3 to level their American League series at two games apiece. The Cubs edged the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 to pull within 2-1 in their National League series. The Yankees, winners of 27 World Series titles, had rallied from five runs down to fend off elimination on Tuesday, but they couldn’t find another win against the Blue Jays — who had pipped them to the American League East division title after finishing last in the division last season.
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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled in a run to put Toronto on the board in the first inning. Ryan McMahon pulled New York level with a home run in the third, but the Blue Jays inched back in front with a run in the fifth on George Springer’s sacrifice fly. Nathan Lukes gave the Blue Jays a bit of breathing room with a two-run single in the seventh, and Toronto added one run in the eighth before surviving a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the frame.
“It feels great,” Guerrero said. “Everybody was just together since the first day. You could tell that something special was there. Maybe some people don’t believe in the team through the year, but I always remind everyone that we have an entire country behind us that believe in us and, hopefully, we can get the World Series back to Canada.” The Yankees, who fell to the Dodgers in the World Series last year, haven’t lifted the crown since 2009.
“We got beat here,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Credit to the Blue Jays. They took it to us this series.” The Blue Jays will face either the Tigers or Mariners for a World Series berth. In Detroit, Riley Greene and Javier Baez both homered in a four-run sixth inning as the Tigers rallied to beat the Mariners. Gleyber Torres also homered for the Tigers, who will try to keep the momentum going when Seattle hosts game five on Friday.
“We believe,” Greene said. “We’re never out of the game no matter what, and we always believe in ourselves.”
– Job to do –
In Los Angeles, Kyle Schwarber belted two home runs — including a monster game-tying blast off Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto that sparked a three-run fourth inning. Schwarber homered again off Clayton Kershaw in a five-run eighth that turned it into a romp. Schwarber notched the 22nd and 23rd postseason homers of his career, moving him to third on the all-time playoff list behind Manny Ramirez (29) and Jose Altuve (27).
“Still got a job to do tomorrow,” Schwarber said. “We were excited about the opportunity today, and we were able to come out and execute and get things going our way and kept the pressure on.” The Dodgers will try again to close out the series when they host game four on Thursday. The winner of the series will face either the Brewers or Cubs in the National League Championship Series.
Michael Busch’s leadoff homer ignited a four-run first inning for the Cubs, and Chicago held on. “I thought we were just locked in from the beginning,” Busch said. “They happened to give us four runs to win it, but I thought right off the bat, all nine of us kind of gave really good at-bats.”
© 2024 AFP
