SEATTLE (AP) — Tired in Toronto, the Blue Jays slugged in Seattle.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer woke up Toronto as the Blue Jays hit five home runs to rebound from an early deficit, routing the Mariners 13-4 Wednesday night and closing to 2-1 in the AL Championship Series.
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Toronto Blue Jays fans hold signs during the eighth inning in Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Toronto Blue Jays fans celebrate after the Blue Jays defeated the Seattle Mariners in Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) celebrates after the final out to defeat the Seattle Mariners in Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Shane Bieber (57) delivers a pitch against the Seattle Mariners during first inning Game 3 American League Championship Series baseball action in Seattle on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays' George Springer connects for a solo home run against the Seattle Mariners during the fourth inning in Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Seattle Mariners during the fifth inning in Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Toronto had 18 hits — all within the first three pitches of each at-bat.
“If they give us a first pitch, the pitch that we’re looking for, we’re going to attack and we’re going to be aggressive,” Guerrero said.
Seattle starter George Kirby gave up eight of the hits.
“I wasn’t really executing when they got the guys on base," Kirby said. “And they’re really aggressive when that happens. They made some good swings.”
Julio Rodríguez’s two-run, first-inning homer off former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber put Seattle ahead and stirred thoughts of a possible sweep in the best-of-seven matchup by a team seeking its first World Series appearance.
Andrés Giménez then sparked the comeback with a tying, two-run homer in a five-run third against Kirby.
Springer, Guerrero, Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger also went deep as the Blue Jays totaled 2,004 feet of homers.
Guerrero had four hits, falling a triple short of the cycle, after going 0 for 7 as the Blue Jays lost the first two games at home.
“No one expected us to win the division, no one expected us to be here, and I think the guys take that to heart," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “I said it when we left Toronto: I hope we find some slug in the air out here. Maybe we did.”
In the 2-3-2 format, teams that lost the first two games at home and won Game 3 on the road have captured the series three of 11 times.
A crowd of 46,471 at T-Mobile Park for Seattle's first home ALCS game since 2001 saw the teams combine to match the postseason record of eight combined home runs, set by the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis in Game 3 of the 2015 NL Division Series and matched by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston in Game 2 of the 2017 World Series.
Giménez hadn’t homered since Aug. 27 before his drive off a Kirby fastball.
“Definitely something changed for our offense," Giménez said. “We come tonight with a mentality to attack.”
Kirby allowed eight runs, eight hits and two walks, taking the loss.
“The first couple innings I thought he was dynamite," Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “This is a team that’s going to hurt you if you make mistakes on the plate. It looked like there were a couple that they were able to get to.”
Kirby's run-scoring wild pitch put Toronto ahead 3-2 and Daulton Varsho followed with a two-run double.
Springer homered in the fourth, tying Bernie Williams for fourth on the career list with his 22nd postseason homer. Guerrero hit his fourth of the postseason for a 7-2 lead on the first pitch of the fifth.
Kirk added a three-run homer in the sixth and is hitting .413 (19 for 46) with eight RBIs in 14 games at T-Mobile Park.
Bieber, who got the win, pitched shutout ball after the first and wound up allowing four hits in six innings — the longest outing by a Blue Jays starter in seven postseason games.
“Obviously didn’t start the way he would have wanted to, but that’s pretty much who he is,” Springer said. "He can battle back from anything.”
After the Blue Jays opened a 12-2 lead, Randy Arozarena connected in the eighth against Yariel Rodríguez for his first home run since Sept. 9 and Cal Raleigh, who led the major leagues with 60 home runs during the regular season, followed three pitches later with his third of the postseason.
“If there’s one thing we’ve done since I’ve been here, we bounce back together well as a team," Mariners reliever Caleb Ferguson said. "We respond well when we kind of get smacked in the face a little bit.”
Seattle RHP Luis Castillo, who pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief against Detroit in Game 5 of the Division Series, starts Thursday against RHP Max Scherzer. The 41-year-old, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, is 0-3 over eight postseason starts since the 2019 World Series opener and hasn’t started since Sept. 24.
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Toronto Blue Jays fans hold signs during the eighth inning in Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Toronto Blue Jays fans celebrate after the Blue Jays defeated the Seattle Mariners in Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) celebrates after the final out to defeat the Seattle Mariners in Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Shane Bieber (57) delivers a pitch against the Seattle Mariners during first inning Game 3 American League Championship Series baseball action in Seattle on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays' George Springer connects for a solo home run against the Seattle Mariners during the fourth inning in Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Seattle Mariners during the fifth inning in Game 3 of baseball's American League Championship Series, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Several Middle Eastern allies of the United States have urged the Trump administration to hold off on strikes against Iran for the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.
Top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have raised concerns in the last 48 hours that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region, said the diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations.
Oil prices fell Thursday as the markets appeared to take note of President Donald Trump’s shifting tone as a sign that he’s leaning away from attacking Iran after days of launching blistering threats at Tehran for its brutal crackdown.
Nevertheless, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday maintained that “all options remain on the table” for Trump as he deals with Iran.
Here's the latest:
The president quickly turned his health care forum into a grievance session against Democrats and a bragging session on the votes he’s gotten in rural America.
“I’m all about the rural community. … We’re taking care of those great people,” he said, arguing that former President Barack Obama “didn’t care about the rural community, to be totally blunt.”
“The Democrats are so horrible toward the rural community,” Trump added. He asked voters to “remember ... in the midterms” that Democrats did not back his “Big Beautiful Bill” that included $10 billion for rural healthcare this year.
Trump effectively blamed Obama’s “Un-Affordable Care Act” for rural hospital closures and financial struggles. In truth, KFF has found that rural hospitals closed at a higher rate in states that did not expand Medicaid under Democrats’ 2010 health care overhaul than in states that did expand to take in more federal money.
“I actually want to keep you where you are, if you know the truth,” Trump told Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council.
Trump made the comment at a White House event on rural health, drawing laughter in the room. But it wasn’t clear the president himself was joking.
It comes as Trump is believed to be in final interviews with potential replacements for the Fed’s current chair, Jerome Powell, a frequently target of Trump’s public attacks.
“We don’t want to lose him Susie,” Trump said of Hassett to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who also at the health event. “We’ll see how it all works out.”
The White House is touting health care spending across small-town America intended to transform how care is delivered in places that have lost many hospitals and providers.
A look at some numbers:
That makes him the highest ranking U.S. official to visit the country following the U.S. military strike which captured former leader Nicolás Maduro.
Thursday’s meeting, first reported by The New York Times, was confirmed Friday by a U.S. government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The official said the meeting in Caracas came at President Trump’s direction and was intended to demonstrate the U.S. desire for a better relationship with Venezuela. The official said Ratcliffe discussed potential economic collaboration with the U.S. and warned that Venezuela can never again allow the presence of American adversaries, including drug traffickers.
— David Klepper
As Attorney General Pam Bondi approaches her first year on the job, the firings of Justice Department attorneys have defined her turbulent tenure. The terminations and a larger voluntary exodus of lawyers have erased centuries of combined experience and left the department with fewer career employees to act as a bulwark for the rule of law at a time when President Trump, a Republican, is testing the limits of executive power by demanding prosecutions of his political enemies.
Interviews by The Associated Press of more than a half-dozen fired employees offer a snapshot of the toll throughout the department. The departures include lawyers who prosecuted violent attacks on police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, environmental, civil rights and ethics enforcers, counterterrorism prosecutors, immigration judges and attorneys who defend administration policies. They continued this week, when several prosecutors in Minnesota moved to resign amid turmoil over an investigation into the shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
▶ Read more about firings at the Justice Department
The White House and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the operator of the mid-Atlantic power grid to take urgent steps to boost energy supply and curb price hikes, holding a Friday event aimed at addressing a rising concern among voters about the enormous amount of power used for artificial intelligence ahead of elections later this year.
The White House said its National Energy Dominance Council and the governors of several states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, want to try to compel PJM Interconnection to hold a power auction for tech companies to bid on contracts to build new power plants.
The Trump administration and governors will sign a statement of principles toward that end Friday.
▶ Read more about the administration and AI-driven power shortages
The Justice Department’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has brought heightened attention to a key drama that will play out at the central bank in the coming months: Will Powell leave the Fed when his term as chair ends, or will he take the unusual step of remaining a governor?
Powell’s term as Fed chair ends May 15, but because of the central bank’s complex structure, he has a separate term as one of seven members of its governing board that lasts until January 31, 2028. Historically, nearly all Fed chairs have stepped down from the board when they’re no longer chair. But Powell could be the first in nearly 50 years to stay on as a governor.
Many Fed-watchers believe the criminal investigation into Powell’s testimony about cost overruns for Fed building renovations was intended to intimidate him out of taking that step. If Powell stays on the board, it would deny the White House a chance to gain a majority, undercutting the Trump administration’s efforts to seize greater control over what has for decades been an institution largely insulated from day-to-day politics.
▶ Read more about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
Trump on Thursday announced the outlines of a health care plan he wants Congress to take up as Republicans have faced increasing pressure to address rising health costs after lawmakers let subsidies expire.
The cornerstone is his proposal to send money directly to Americans for health savings accounts so they can handle insurance and health costs as they see fit. Democrats have rejected the idea as a paltry substitute for the tax credits that had helped lower monthly premiums for many people.
Trump’s plan also focuses on lowering drug prices and requiring insurers to be more upfront with the public about costs, revenues, rejected claims and wait times for care.
Trump has long been dogged by his lack of a comprehensive health care plan as he and Republicans have sought to unwind former President Barack Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. Trump was thwarted during his first term in trying to repeal and replace the law.
▶ Read more about Trump’s health care plan
Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.
Donald Trump isn’t leaving it to future generations.
As the first year of his second term wraps up, his Republican administration and allies have put his name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships.
That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
On Friday, he plans to attend a ceremony in Florida where local officials will dedicate a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.
▶ Read more about Trump’s renaming efforts
Nearly a year into his second term, Trump’s work on the economy hasn’t lived up to the expectations of many people in his own party, according to a new AP-NORC survey.
The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds a significant gap between the economic leadership Americans remembered from Trump’s first term and what they’ve gotten so far as he creates a stunning level of turmoil at home and abroad.
Just 16% of Republicans say Trump has helped “a lot” in addressing the cost of living, down from 49% in April 2024, when an AP-NORC poll asked Americans the same question about his first term.
At the same time, Republicans are overwhelmingly supportive of the president’s leadership on immigration — even if some don’t like his tactics.
There is little sign overall, though, that the Republican base is abandoning Trump. The vast majority of Republicans, about 8 in 10, approve of his job performance, compared with 4 in 10 for adults overall.
▶ Read more about the poll’s findings
Several Middle Eastern allies of the United States have urged the Trump administration to hold off on strikes against Iran for the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.
Top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have raised concerns in the last 48 hours that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region, said the diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations.
Oil prices fell on Thursday as the markets appeared to take note of President Donald Trump’s shifting tone as a sign that he’s leaning away from attacking Iran after days of launching blistering threats at Tehran for its brutal crackdown.
Nevertheless, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday maintained that “all options remain on the table” for Trump as he deals with Iran.
▶ Read more about Trump and Iran
— Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani and Ben Finley
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to honor the 2025 Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
