The Toronto Blue Jays have their first post-season victory in nine years.
Alejandro Kirk had his second straight two-homer game to power the Toronto Blue Jays to a 10-1 rout of the New York Yankees in Game 1 of their American League Division Series on Saturday.
Kirk, who drove in six runs in Toronto’s regular-season finale last Sunday, hit a solo shot in the second inning and added another in the eighth.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. opened the scoring with a solo homer off Luis Gil (0-1) in the first inning and starter Kevin Gausman (1-0) was effective over 5 2/3 frames as Toronto won its first playoff game since 2016.
Gausman ran into trouble in the sixth by loading the bases with nobody out. He struck out slugger Aaron Judge before walking Cody Bellinger to make it a one-run game.
After getting Ben Rice on an infield fly, reliever Louis Varland came on and struck out Giancarlo Stanton.
Nathan Lukes hit a two-run double in Toronto’s four-run seventh inning. The Blue Jays tacked on another four runs in the eighth.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman allowed one earned run and four hits over 5 2/3 innings. Yankees starter Luis Gil was pulled in the third inning.
Game 2 in the best-of-five series is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Rogers Centre. Game 3 will be played at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.
This is Toronto’s first appearance in the division series since 2016. The Blue Jays were swept in the wild-card round in their last three trips to the post-season.
The Yankees advanced to the ALDS on Thursday with a 4-0 win over the Boston Red Sox in the deciding game of their three-game wild-card series.
New York won the AL pennant last year before falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
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