M's take two in Toronto for commanding ALCS lead

TORONTO -- J.P. Crawford, the longest-tenured member of the Seattle Mariners, has experienced different tastes of disappointment in his seven seasons in the Pacific Northwest. A last-place finish. Falling just short of reaching the postseason three times. Playoff exhilaration getting abruptly extinguished the one year they did make it.

Sometime early this season, the shortstop explained after the Mariners completed perhaps the most important road trip in franchise history with a 10-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays to take a 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series, he believed this team was different.

"We know we're a good team," Crawford said. "And now everyone knows that we can do this thing and that's what's lighting the fire underneath everyone."

The Mariners are now just two wins from doing the thing -- winning their first American League pennant and advancing to the World Series for the first time in franchise history -- with Game 3 scheduled for Wednesday at T-Mobile Park. It is the first time they've ever led an ALCS by multiple games. It is the 28th time in postseason history that the road team has won the first two games of a best-of-seven series. Only three of those clubs went on to lose the series.

"We think about it," said second baseman Jorge Polanco, who swatted a go-ahead three-run home run in the fifth inning to give Seattle a lead they didn't relinquish. "We hear it a lot. We know. But the mentality is just keep it simple. Just try to refocus on playing game by game."

Less than 24 hours after the Mariners, wearied coming off an emotional 15-inning win in Game 5 of the AL Division Series on Friday, stole Game 1 with a late-inning comeback fueled by adrenaline, they opted for a less dramatic blueprint in Game 2.

Instead, the Mariners pounded three home runs and got six scoreless innings from three relievers to complete Monday's demolition inside an open-roofed Rogers Centre on Canadian Thanksgiving before heading back to Seattle to potentially close out the series.

The Mariners did not waste time in inflicting heavy damage against a pitcher they had never seen before. Trey Yesavage was eight days removed from holding the New York Yankees hitless over 5 ⅓ innings in his fourth career start in Game 2 of the ALDS. His abnormally high release point and arm angle, combined with a fastball-splitter combination he uncorks from over the top, overwhelmed the Yankees.

The Mariners entered the encounter with a simple gameplan to avoid falling victim to the splitter, a pitch that the Yankees went 0-for-11 on with eight strikeouts: If it's low, let it go. Wait for a mistake up in the zone and do not miss.

Julio Rodriguez did not miss. Three batters into the game, after Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch and Cal Raleigh walked, Yesavage threw a mistake splitter to Rodriguez up and over the plate in a 1-2 count that Rodríguez cracked down the left-field line for a three-run shot.

It was the first home run Yesavage has allowed in his brief major-league career -- he had previously surrendered just two extra-base hits in four starts -- and the first extra-base hit of any variety he's surrendered with his splitter at this level.

"I feel like at the end of the day, you gotta see the ball and get your pitch," Rodríguez said. "We have seen what he's been doing and obviously we respect that, but we went out there to compete."

Blue Jays manager John Schneider called for a reliever to warm up as Yesavage's pitch count approached 30 after Rodriguez's crowd-silencing blast. But the rookie right-hander stranded a runner at second base with consecutive strikeouts. From there, he settled into the game as Toronto responded with three runs in the first two innings to tie the game. Yesavage held the Mariners without another run until departing with one out and two runners on base in the fifth inning.

Two batters after the exit, Polanco continued his torrid October by launching a 98-mph fastball from right-hander Louis Varland just over the wall in right-center field to give the Mariners the lead with their second three-run homer. The home run was the switch-hitting Polanco's third of the postseason and first batting left-handed after connecting with his first two against Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal in the ALDS. The 12-year veteran has eight RBIs in the playoffs, already tied for third most in the Mariners' concise postseason history.

Josh Naylor delivered the final blow, a two-run home run to right field off right-hander Braydon Fisher for his third hit of the day to give Seattle a 9-3 lead in the seventh inning. A native of Mississauga, a Toronto suburb, the first baseman became the first Canadian-born player to ever hit a home run in the postseason as a visiting player in Canada.

"I went 0-for-4 yesterday, and we won," Naylor said. "So if I did it again today, maybe [it] was good luck to go 0-for-4, and we would win again. But I was very thankful to get some hits, help the team out. Super cool to do it in front of my family, too."

The excitable Naylor celebrated the homer by pointing to the crowd behind the Mariners' dugout as he began his trot. He and third baseman Eugenio Suarez were the two boppers the Mariners acquired at the trade deadline to bolster an offense that failed to adequately complement an elite pitching staff in years past. The moves solidified what had sprouted in Crawford's mind early in the season, that this team could do the thing that no team has ever done since the franchise's inception in 1977.

"We're two wins away," Crawford said. "If that doesn't fire anyone up, I don't know what can."