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TORONTO — With another triumph in Toronto, the surging Seattle Mariners moved two wins away from the team’s first World Series.

Jorge Polanco and Julio Rodriguez hit three-run homers, Josh Naylor added a two-run drive and the Mariners took a 2-0 AL Championship Series lead by routing the Blue Jays 10-3 on Monday.

Seattle, the only big league team never to make a World Series, headed home for Wednesday’s Game 3 halfway to clinching this best-of-seven series and ending a drought for a team that started play in 1977.

“We’re super excited to get back home,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “We know what that atmosphere is going to be like.”

Toronto had just six hits, only one after the second inning, and had eight hits combined in the first two games. Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was 0 for 3 with a walk Monday and is hitless in the series.

“Slug hasn’t been there for us, has been there for them,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

Rodríguez homered for a 3-0 lead three batters in against rookie Trey Yesavage, a 22-year-old making just his fifth big league start.

Nathan Lukes and Alejandro Kirk had RBI singles in the bottom half off Logan Gilbert, and Lukes’ run-scoring single tied the score in the second.

Polanco’s three-run homer off Louis Varland put Seattle back ahead 6-3 in the fifth.

“To get the three-run homer was a huge turnaround for us,” Wilson said.

Schneider blamed poor pitch location for Polanco’s pivotal homer.

“Didn’t execute up where we wanted to and paid the price,” he said.

J.P Crawford added an RBI single in the sixth and Naylor had a two-run homer in the seventh against Braydon Fisher.

Six of Polanco’s first seven hits this postseason drove in runs. He had the game-ending single in the 15th inning of Friday’s Division Series clincher against Detroit and went 2 for 4 with two RBIs in Seattle’s 3-1 opening ALCS win.

He became the first player in MLB history to have a go-ahead hit in the fifth inning or later of three consecutive playoff games, according to ESPN Research.

“He’s come up in situations where we’ve had guys on, and he’s been able to do the job and drive them in,” Wilson said. “That’s what this game is all about.”

Polanco’s two previous home runs this October both came off Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner.

The roof was open on a breezy 62-degree day on the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday, but the sellout crowd of 44,814 had little to celebrate.

Seattle’s bullpen has combined for nine scoreless innings in the series, allowing just one hit. Winner Eduard Bazardo, Carlos Vargas and Emerson Hancock each pitched two innings.

Going back to the Division Series, Mariners relievers have thrown 18 consecutive shutout innings.

“Just an outstanding job again tonight from the bullpen,” Wilson said. “You can’t ask for more than that and these guys really delivered.”

Naylor, born in Mississauga, Ontario, fouled a ball off his right foot in the first inning and looked uncomfortable in the batter’s box in the fifth, prompting Wilson to come out and check on him. With Miles Mastrobuoni getting ready to come into the game, Naylor convinced Wilson to leave him in and homered in the seventh.

Naylor finished 3 for 5 with two RBIs.

“I was very thankful to get some hits, help the team out,” Naylor said. “Super cool to do it in front of my family, too. Very blessed to have them all here, all my friends. It was a really cool moment for them.”

Going back to the Division Series 15-inning clincher, Mariners relievers have thrown 18 straight shutout innings.

Yesavage, who took the loss, gave up three runs and four hits in four-plus innings. He set a Blue Jays postseason record by striking out 11 Yankees in 5⅓ hitless innings in ALDS Game 2 but had two swings and misses on his splitter Monday, down from 11 against New York.

“I thought his stuff was pretty similar,” Schneider said. “Had the three strikeouts but wasn’t getting as much swing-and-miss. That was the biggest thing.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Braves sign vet OF Yastrzemski to 2-year deal

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Braves sign vet OF Yastrzemski to 2-year deal

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves signed veteran outfielder Mike Yastrzemski to a two-year deal Wednesday that includes a club option for 2028.

The 35-year-old Yastrzemski hit .233 with 17 home runs and 46 RBIs in 146 games last year between San Francisco and Kansas City.

Yastrzemski, who spent the first six-plus seasons of his career with the Giants before being sent to the Royals in July, will make $9 million in 2026 and $10 million in 2027. Atlanta holds a club option for 2028. Yastrzemski will make $7 million if the Braves pick up the option. He will receive a $4 million buyout if they do not.

The versatile Yastrzemski, the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, can play all three outfield positions and is a career .238 hitter. His best season came in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign, when he batted .297 with 10 homers in 54 games and finished in the top 10 in NL MVP voting.

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Rule 5: Yanks pick Winquest, Rockies get Petit

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Rule 5: Yanks pick Winquest, Rockies get Petit

ORLANDO, Fla. — The New York Yankees made their first selection in a Rule 5 draft since 2011 on Wednesday, taking right-hander Cade Winquest from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Winquest was one of 13 players — and 12 right-handed pitchers — chosen in the major league portion of the draft.

The Rockies took RJ Petit, a 6-foot-8 reliever, with the first pick from the Detroit Tigers. Petit, 26, had a 2.44 ERA in 45 relief appearances and two starts between Double A and Triple A last season. The Minnesota Twins chose the only position player, selecting catcher Daniel Susac from the Athletics.

Clubs pay $100,000 to select a player and must keep him on the active major league roster for the entire following season unless he lands on the injured list. Players taken off the roster must be offered back to the former club for $50,000.

The 25-year-old Winquest recorded a 4.58 ERA with a 48% groundball rate in 106 innings across 25 games, including 23 starts, between Single A and Double A last season. He features a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and touches 98 mph plus a curveball, cutter and sweeper. He is expected to compete for a spot in the Yankees’ bullpen next season.

Right-hander Brad Meyers was the last player the Yankees had chosen in a Rule 5 draft. He suffered a right shoulder injury in spring training and was on the injured list for the entire 2012 season before he was offered back to the Washington Nationals. He never appeared in a major league game.

Also picked were right-hander Jedixson Paez (Colorado from Boston), right-hander Griff McGarry (Washington from Philadelphia), catcher Carter Baumler (Pittsburgh from Baltimore), right-hander Ryan Watson (Athletics from San Francisco), right-hander Matthew Pushard (St. Louis from Miami), right-hander Roddery Munoz (Houston from Cincinnati), right-hander Peyton Pallette (Cleveland from Chicago White Sox), right-hander Spencer Miles (Toronto from San Francisco), right-hander Zach McCambley (Philadelphia from Miami) and right-hander Alexander Alberto (White Sox from Tampa Bay).

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Joe Buck joins father, wins HOF’s Frick Award

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Joe Buck joins father, wins HOF's Frick Award

Even though Joe Buck is more widely known these days as the voice of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” his broadcast career is rooted in baseball, including calling the most World Series games on television.

On Wednesday, Buck received a call that he thought was at least a few years down the line. He found out he received the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting by baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Buck is not only the 50th winner of the Frick Award, he joins his father, Jack, to become the only father-son duo to win the honor. Jack Buck, who broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games from 1954 until 2021 and was the lead announcer on CBS’ baseball package in 1990 and ’91, received the award in 1987.

“I am shocked in many ways. I didn’t think this was coming right now,” Buck said. “I was saying to the group that called to tell me that my best memory of my father as a Major League Baseball broadcaster was in 1987 in Cooperstown, New York, and what it meant to him, what it meant to our family to see him get the award. To see the joy and the pride that he had for what he had done.”

Joe Buck will receive the award during the Hall’s July 25, 2026, awards presentation in Cooperstown, a day ahead of induction ceremonies. At 56, Buck becomes the second-youngest Frick Award winner, trailing only Vin Scully, who was 54 when he was named the 1982 winner.

Buck grew up in St. Louis and called games for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds in 1989 and ’90 after graduating from Indiana University. He joined his father for Cardinals broadcasts in 1991, a job Joe held through 2007. Jack Buck died in June 2002 at age 77.

“I was lucky to call Jack Buck my dad and my best friend. I’m lucky that I’m Carol Buck’s son. I tend to downplay awards and what have you because of always feeling like I had a leg up at the start of my career and I did. I’m the first to admit it. But I am happy that when I was a kid, I paid attention and I wanted to be with him. I think the greatest gift my dad gave me was allowing me to be in the room with him. I’d like to think there’s still some stuff out in front of me, but this is the greatest honor I could receive. And to know what he would be thinking and feeling on this day, that’s the part what makes it special.

“I recall him saying [during his speech] that he was honored to be the eyes and the ears for Cardinal fans, wherever the Cardinals went, and he was very proud of being the conduit between wherever the Cardinals were playing and those fans that were listening. That always resonated with me.”

Buck joined Fox Sports when it started doing NFL games in 1994. Two years later, it got the rights to Major League Baseball and Buck was made the lead announcer with Tim McCarver as the analyst. McCarver retired from broadcasting after the 2013 season and received the Frick Award in 2021.

Buck was 27 when he called his first World Series in 1996. He would go on to do the Fall Classic in 1998 and then annually from 2000-21. His 135 World Series games make him one of six U.S. play-by-play announcers to reach the century mark calling either the Fall Classic, NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Finals. Scully had 126 World Series games on radio and television.

Buck also worked 21 All-Star Games and 26 League Championship Series for Fox before joining ESPN in 2022 as the voice of “Monday Night Football.”

Since going to ESPN, Buck called a game on Opening Day last year and worked a Cardinals game with Chip Caray in 2023. Buck said there is the possibility of doing a couple more games for ESPN in the future.

“I think of myself as a baseball announcer probably first because that’s what I was around the most. I love the game. I’m a fan of the game,” he said. “I still dream as a baseball announcer at night. I think all announcers have the same nightmare where you show up at a game and you can’t see anybody on the field, you don’t know anybody’s name and you’re trying to fake your way through a broadcast. Those are all baseball games in my dreams. So it’s in my genetics, it’s in my DNA. I grew up at Busch Stadium as a kid and yeah, baseball is always kind of first and foremost in my heart.”

Buck also becomes the sixth broadcaster to win both the Frick Award and the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, joining Jack Buck, Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, Al Michaels and Lindsey Nelson.

A broadcaster must have 10 continuous years of experience with a network or team to be considered, and the ballot was picked by a subcommittee of past winners that includes Marty Brennaman, Joe Castiglione and Bob Costas, along with broadcast historians David J. Halberstam and Curt Smith. At least one candidate must be a foreign-language broadcaster.

Voters are 13 past winners — Brennaman, Castiglione, Costas, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Jaime Jarrín, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Michaels, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Dave Van Horne and Tom Hamilton — plus historians Halberstam, Smith and former Dallas Morning News writer Barry Horn.

John Rooney of the Cardinals and Brian Anderson of the Milwaukee Brewers were ballot newcomers this year, joining returnees Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Duane Kuiper and John Sterling. Buck was on the ballot after being dropped last year, and Dan Shulman was on for the third time in four years.

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