Yankees bow out to Toronto, Phillies hold off Dodgers

The New York Yankees said goodbye Wednesday to their hopes of a second World Series in a row by falling 5x2 to the Toronto Blue Jays, while the Philadelphia Phillies avoided elimination against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs also extended their Major League Baseball divisional series with wins against the Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers, respectively.

The Yankees were the first to fall in this phase of the playoffs by a 3-1 aggregate to Toronto.

This Wednesday they had no more lives left against the Blue Jays, who struck early from Dominican-Canadian Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who towed his ninth run of the series in the opening inning.

The locals equalized in the third inning with a home run by Ryan McMahon but in the fifth Ernie Clement put Toronto back in the lead.

Detroit matches Milwaukee

In the seventh inning, Bahamian Jazz Chisholm Jr. made a fateful error when a ball got away from him at second base and allowed the Azulejos to put runners on base.

Nathan Lukes exploited the situation with a single off reliever Devin Williams that gave Clement and Venezuelan Andrés Giménez a free path to put Toronto up 4-for-1.

Another homer by Mexico's Alejandro Kirk in the eighth inning extended the despair among the Yankee Stadium stands, with actor Timothée Chalamet and model Kylie Jenner in the front row.

In the last, the stellar Aaron Judge crashed the ball into the wall and allowed Dominican Jasson Dominguez to score.

But then Toronto closer Jeff Hoffman brought the shutter down on a lackluster season for the Yankees.

The Bronx Bombers, who fell to the Dodgers in last year’s World Series, finished runners-up to Toronto in the AL East after a season that began with the painful departure of Dominican star Juan Soto to their crosstown rivals, the Mets.

The Blue Jays, meanwhile, will play their first American League Championship Series since 2016 against either the Tigers or Mariners.

This Wednesday Detroit beat Seattle 9x3 in an afternoon in which Puerto Rican Javier Baez shined with a three-run home run and Venezuelan Gleyber Torres signed another single.

This game was tied 2x2 and will be defined in Friday's Game 5 at the Mariners' home.

Phillies bomb Kershaw

In the National League, the Phillies stayed alive with an 8x2 win over the Dodgers, powered by a pair of Kyle Schwarber home runs to narrow the series to 2-1.

The defending champions had taken two wins from Philadelphia and wanted to seal the sweep in front of their fans.

But the Phillies second-best team in the regular season behind Milwaukee, rebelled in a game they got back on track against the highly regarded Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and sealed the sweep by exploiting the limitations of veteran Clayton Kershaw.

Tommy Edman opened the scoring for the home side with a home run before the Phillies strung together three runs in the fourth inning off Yamamoto.

Schwarber hit his first homer off the Japanese and another later off Kershaw.

The iconic pitcher, who will retire after these playoffs at age 37, was bombarded by the Phillies with two home runs, six hits and five runs in his two innings on the mound.

Schwarber moved into third place among Major League hitters in the postseason with 23 home runs. He is second only to Dominican Manny Ramirez (29) and Venezuelan Jose Altuve (27).

Shohei Ohtani did not make a hit in his five at-bats for a Dodgers who will get a second chance to advance Thursday also at home.

In the other series, the Catchers beat the Brewers 4x3 to close to within 2-1 with a shot at a fourth-inning tie on Thursday.