Two games into the AL Championship Series against Seattle, the Toronto Blue Jays look like a different team from the one that pounded the New York Yankees.
“Always going to have optimism about this team,” manager John Schneider said after Monday night’s 10-3 loss to the Mariner dropped Toronto into a 2-0 series deficit. “We’ve got to figure out a way to limit damage, one, and then two, generate more offense.”
Of the 27 teams winning the first two games on the road of a best-of-seven series during the 2-3-2 format, 24 have gone on to win.
Toronto, which led the majors with 49 comeback wins in the regular season, is trying to reach the World Series for the first time since winning its second straight title in 1993.
Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr was 0 for 3 with a walk Monday and is 0 for 7 in the series. Guerrero went 9 for 17 with three homers and nine RBIs in four games against the Yankees.
Toronto has four runs and eight hits – just two for extra bases – in the two games against Seattle. Just one hit has come after the second inning.
Toronto went 40-41 on the road in the regular season but swept a three-game series at Seattle in May.
“We have a good day tomorrow to reset as a team and get ready for Game 3 and whatever happens there,” said rookie Trey Yesavage, the Game 2 loser. “I wouldn’t count this group out. This group is special.”
LA Dodgers 2-1 Milwaukee Brewers
Blake Snell allowed one baserunner in eight shutout innings before Los Angeles’ bullpen barely held on in the ninth as the Dodgers opened the National League Championship Series with a 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.
Blake Treinen struck out Brice Turang with the bases loaded to end the game.
The Dodgers led 2-0 when they handed the ball to Roki Sasaki in the ninth after Snell had thrown 103 pitches. Sasaki had worked five and one-third scoreless innings while adjusting to a bullpen role in the NL Division Series against Philadelphia, but he wasn’t nearly as sharp Monday.
Isaac Collins drew a one-out walk and Jake Bauers hit a ground-rule double that bounced over the center-field wall. Jackson Chourio hit a sacrifice fly that scored Collins and advanced pinch-runner Brandon Lockridge to third. Christian Yelich walked on a 3-2 pitch low and outside.
That’s when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts removed Sasaki and brought in Treinen.
Yelich stole second to move the potential winning run into scoring position before William Contreras walked on a 3-2 pitch low and outside. After Treinen nearly hit Turang with a pitch – which would have tied the game – Turang struck out swinging at a neck-high 2-2 fastball.
Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitching for Los Angeles and Freddy Peralta starting for Milwaukee in a matchup of All-Stars.
This NLCS is a study in contrasts, with the Brewers playing in MLB’s smallest market while the defending World Series champion Dodgers have the most expensive roster in the game.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy referenced the difference in star power between the two teams by joking during his pre-game news conference that “I’m sure that most Dodger players can’t name eight guys on our roster.”
Even so, the Brewers had swept their six regular-season matchups with the Dodgers. All those games came in July, while Snell was on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.
Snell showed Monday how much of a difference he can make. The two-time Cy Young Award winner struck out 10 while walking nobody and allowing only one hit – a leadoff single by Caleb Durbin in the third.
Freddie Freeman broke a scoreless tie with a solo homer in the sixth. Freeman’s drive came after the Brewers thwarted a couple of Los Angeles opportunities, most notably on a bizarre 8-6-2 double play that was inches away from becoming a Max Muncy grand slam.
Freeman connected on a 3-2 pitch from Chad Patrick and delivered a shot so high that it got tantalizingly close to the American Family Field roof before barely clearing the right-field wall for his first homer of this postseason.
