Guerrero drives in 5 runs, Blue Jays rout Guardians 11-0 to tighten AL wild-card race

CLEVELAND (AP) — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a three-run homer and had a season-high five RBIs, Dylan Cease scattered four hits over six innings and the Toronto Blue Jays routed the Cleveland Guardians 11-0 on Wednesday night.

The Guardians remain in the third American League wild-card position, but their lead over Toronto, Baltimore and Texas was sliced to 1 1/2 games.

Cease (10-5), one of the top Cy Young Award candidates, struck out four without a walk and did not allow a runner past second base. The right-hander hasn’t lost since July 20, going 4-0 with a 1.38 ERA in eight starts.

Guerrero homered in the second against Joey Cantillo (9-8), capping a five-run inning that made it 6-0. The six-time All-Star, who went 3 for 4, has hit all eight of his home runs on the road.

Rookie Brett Bateman scored three times on Guerrero’s three hits, and Josh Smith belted a solo homer in the eighth off Carlos Hernández as Toronto evened the series at one win apiece.

Cease had his 19-start streak with at least seven strikeouts end, one short of the MLB record for a season by Curt Schilling in 1997 and Randy Johnson in 2001. Paul Sewald, Brendon Little and Braydon Fisher wrapped up the six-hitter.

Cantillo allowed a career-high nine runs in 5 1/3 innings, but five were unearned on an error by shortstop Angel Genao. Catcher Austin Hedges gave up one run in 1 2/3 innings for the Guardians.

Toronto has won four of its last five and is 21-13 since July 27. The 11-run victory margin was its second largest this season.

Blue Jays RHP José Soriano (11-7, 3.45 ERA) was set to face Guardians RHP Tanner Bibee (5-14, 3.88 ERA) on Thursday in the series finale. Bibee and Baltimore’s Shane Baz lead the majors in losses.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb

Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. watches his RBI single off Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Carlos Hernandez during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Sep. 2, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. heads to first base after hitting a three-run home run off Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Joey Cantillo during the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Sep. 2, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Cleveland Guardians' Jose Ramirez watches his fly out off Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Dylan Cease as cacher Alejandro Kirk looks on during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Sep. 2, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Dylan Cease delivers against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Sep. 2, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. watches his three-run home run off Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Joey Cantillo during the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Sep. 2, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Phil Long)

NEW YORK (AP) — Gloria Steinem, the celebrated author and activist who became one of the most visible symbols and potent voices of the U.S. women’s movement and a fierce advocate for feminist causes throughout her life, has died. She was 92.

With her trademark streaked hair parted down the middle and large aviator glasses, Steinem, a co-founder of Ms. Magazine, was a hugely recognizable presence wherever she went. And she went everywhere: Much of her life as an advocate was spent on the road, speaking at college campuses and community centers, at rallies and marches.

She died Wednesday at her home in New York City, according to her and her foundation’s social media pages.

“Gloria’s greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard,” the posts said. “Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves. Gloria lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humor.”

Steinem enjoyed writing and spending time in the community in recent years, the posts said. She also hosted talking circles for hundreds of people in her home.

“You can’t do it on the phone or on the web,” she told The Associated Press in a 2015 interview. “You have to be there with all five senses. It should be obvious that people can’t empathize with each other unless we’re in the same room.”

She began her career as a journalist, notably one who reported, in 1963, on degrading conditions in Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire, an undercover assignment she came to later regret. She credits a meeting six years later, where women spoke out boldly in favor of abortion rights, with changing her career path.

“That speak-out was the beginning of activism for me,” Steinem, who had undergone a secret illegal abortion herself at age 22, told the AP in an email in 2022, reflecting on the reversal of Roe v Wade. “Either our control over our own bodies is equal, regardless of sex or race, or we’re not living in a democracy.”

Though she soon became a known activist, those who watched Steinem denounce discrimination for so many years likely never suspected that she’d had to overcome a deep fear of public speaking. She would have simply stuck to writing, she said, if only editors at the time had been willing to let her write about the women’s movement.

But they weren’t interested, she told the AP in 2015. “So I ended up going out and speaking, which was my nightmare,” she said. “I mean, I was terrified. But I’m grateful, even though I still get scared even now.”

Time hardly slowed Steinem down; well into her 80s she was traveling the globe and speaking out on issues of importance to her. These included everything from genital mutilation to Korean reconciliation, but it was equality for women that took precedence. “Being a feminist means that you see the world as whole instead of half,” she once said. “It shouldn’t need a name, and one day it won’t.”

As the years went on, Steinem’s visibility endured. At 83, she sat in the front row of her first fashion show, guest of designer Prabal Gurung. A few days after her 85th birthday, she was leading a women’s “talking circle” at an off-Broadway play celebrating her life, where one by one, women in the audience — many fighting tears — rose to thank her and tell their own stories of discrimination. In 2020, her life was the subject of a feature film, “The Glorias, A Life on The Road,” based on her 2015 memoir and starring Julianne Moore.

And at 91, she collaborated on a picture book with Liberian peace activist and Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee aimed at inspiring young people to change the world. “Rise, Girl, Rise: Our Sister-Friend Journey. Together for All” was published in February 2026.

The constant visibility came with a price; even into her older years, Steinem expressed frustration that despite her accomplishments, she was often described as beautiful or glamorous (A 1992 Vanity Fair profile even noted her “spectacular racehorse legs.”) It was a label she said unfairly detracted from her message.

“Nobody ever called me beautiful until I was publicly a feminist, and that was in my mid-30s,” she told AP in a 2011 interview. “It was clear that label was being assigned to me. The most hurtful part is that you work very hard, and people say it’s because of your looks.”

Of course, Steinem also had to deal with hostility. Sometimes it came from surprising places. Appearing on Larry King’s talk show on CNN in 1990, she was visibly stunned when a female caller greeted her cheerfully, then told her to “rot in hell” because she had ruined “the beautiful American family.”

But by then, she noted, at least people were taking feminists seriously. That wasn’t the case in 1972 when she co-founded Ms. Magazine and many commentators — especially male — dismissed it as ridiculous, predicting an early demise. (The magazine continues to this day, published by the Feminist Majority Foundation.)

Among Steinem’s detractors was President Richard Nixon, who was caught on an Oval Office tape ridiculing both her and the “Ms.” title. The ridicule was mutual: In a 1972 National Press Club speech, Steinem called Nixon “the most sexually insecure chief of state since Napoleon.”

It was just one example of Steinem’s trademark wit. Before she married at 66, she often explained her singlehood by saying “I can’t mate in captivity.” Laughter, she wrote, was “the only free emotion — the only one that can’t be compelled.”

Gloria Steinem, Journalist and Activist talks during the Forbes 30/50 Summit at the Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

FILE - Gloria Steinem speaks during the 2021 Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony in Oviedo, northern Spain, Oct. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)