Pete Alonso homers twice to reach 40 on the season, helps Orioles rally to 4-3 win over Blue Jays

BALTIMORE (AP) — Pete Alonso homered twice, including a two-run shot in the eighth inning that lifted the Baltimore Orioles to a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night.

The Orioles are on the verge of elimination in the American League wild-card race, but Alonso has been terrific in his first season with the team. He has 40 home runs — the fourth time he's reached that mark in a season — and he's opened a nine-RBI lead on Triple Crown hopeful Yordan Alvarez of Houston.

In fact, Alonso might be the one who ends up leading the AL in homers and RBIs. He's one home run behind Tampa Bay slugger Junior Caminero.

The Blue Jays brought in submarine right-hander Tyler Rogers (2-3) to face Alonso, who became just the second right-handed hitter to homer off him over the last two seasons.

Yennier Cano (4-3) won in relief for the Orioles, and Rico Garcia worked a perfect ninth for his 10th save.

Nathan Lukes and George Springer hit RBI singles during Toronto's three-run first inning, but the Blue Jays fell 3 1/2 games behind the idle Chicago White Sox for the final wild card in the AL.

Trey Yesavage returned to the mound for the Blue Jays after knee inflammation sent him to the injured list in early August. He pitched only two innings, allowing a home run to Alonso in the first.

Gunnar Henderson homered in the sixth for the Orioles and finished a double shy of the cycle.

After the start was delayed 47 minutes because of rain, the first four Toronto batters reached base. Shane Baz was called for a pitch-clock violation with the count full to Brett Bateman. Then he issued another walk to Alejandro Kirk on a debatable checked-swing call.

Lukes and Springer followed with hits to make it 2-0. A sacrifice fly by Sean Keys brought home another run.

Baz held Toronto scoreless after that and made it through 6 2/3 innings.

Bateman left the game with a hip injury after making a sliding catch in center field in the second. X-rays were negative.

Blue Jays RHP Max Scherzer (3-8) starts Tuesday night against Chris Bassitt (8-5) of the Orioles.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Brendan Cellucci delivers during the third inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Toronto Blue Jays center fielder Brett Bateman, center, is tended to by a trainer, right, after an injury during the second inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Baltimore Orioles' Pete Alonso (25) celebrates with Gunnar Henderson (2) after hitting a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Baltimore Orioles' Pete Alonso rounds the bases after hitting a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the United Nations this week facing new fears that runaway artificial intelligence could threaten humanity even as climate shocks and escalating prices are already making life much tougher for hundreds of millions of people.

The annual high-level gathering at the U.N. General Assembly will also be consumed with major wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine,Sudan, Congo and Myanmar and a persisting question: Can the leaders do anything to end them?

And what can they do about the relentless rise of global warming threatening the future of the planet, the growing inequalities within and among nations, and shocks to the global economy as blocked shipping routes and supply chains increase the cost of living and slow growth?

The future of the United Nations will also definitely be on the agenda. At 81, its powers are still the victorious nations from World War II, not the 21st century’s major global players. The U.N.’s 193 member nations have agreed to a wide-ranging reform package that includes updating key institutions such as the powerful U.N. Security Council, where the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France hold inordinate sway because of their veto power. Reform, however, is easier said than implemented.

Behind the scenes, there will be speculation about who will lead the United Nations next. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ second five-year term ends Dec. 31 and no clear successor has emerged.

There is still no question that the U.N. remains THE gathering place for its 193 member nations and their leaders. Some 130 heads of state and government are expected to speak at the General Assembly starting Tuesday along with dozens of ministers.

Among the headliners will be U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emanuel Macron. Both will speak Tuesday after Guterres’ opening “state of the world” address. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian speak Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whom New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani wanted arrested for his treatment of Palestinians in Gaza until he learned he has no such authority — will address the assembly on Thursday. For a second year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won’t be coming to the U.N. because the U.S. has refused to give him a visa. He will nonetheless address the assembly by video the same day.

The United States, under its agreement with the U.N. to host the organization, is required to allow diplomats from all member nations to attend meetings.

Equally telling is who else isn’t coming. China’s President Xi Jinping is meeting Trump in Washington on Wednesday, yet he is skipping — some diplomats say snubbing — the U.N. gathering and sending a vice president instead. Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t coming either, and Indian President Narendra Modi has backed out.

France's U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said it is “extremely critical” for world leaders this week to support the U.N. as the place where the world’s nations meet — especially at a time of such polarization.

“We believe in multilateralism," he said, "and we believe that the high-level week is the occasion for countries in the world to reaffirm that they prefer cooperation and dialogue to confrontation.”

There is no doubt it’s been a tough year for the world body. It has been pushed to the sidelines when it comes to its key responsibility of ensuring international peace and security and trying to end major conflicts in the Mideast and Ukraine. The U.S. failure to pay billions of dollars in outstanding arrears has left the organization’s finances in rocky shape.

But veteran U.N. watcher Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group’s global issues and institutions program director, says 2025 was even worse.

A year ago, he said, people were contemplating that Trump would use his U.N. speech to announce that the United States would leave the world organization. Trump didn’t announce a pullout last September and the U.N. muddled through the past 12 months with financial troubles that forced cutbacks to its peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid.

In recent days, the U.S. paid $725 million of its dues to the U.N.’s regular operating budget for this year, enough to keep the Trump administration from losing its vote in the General Assembly. The payment was a strong indication Trump will keep the U.S. in the United Nations.

The U.N. is no longer “in freefall,” Gowan said, but it “is stuck in an open-ended or permanent crisis.” Put more graphically, he said, “The U.N. may not be in emergency care like it was last year, but it does seem to be trapped in a trauma center for the foreseeable future.”

Former U.N. deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch-Brown, a United Nations Foundation board member, said, “While the world still trusts the U.N., the global public is eager for change."

The future of artificial intelligence has pushed to the forefront of global concerns, with its speeding advances and the dawning recognition that there are no industry controls, let alone any global guardrails for a technology that has many advantages but also many disadvantages and unknowns.

Days before the global gathering, leaders of three major AI companies warned about the technology getting out of human control and called for a pause, but Trump dismissed their concerns as “a hoax,” and urged continued advances to keep the U.S. ahead of China.

The U.N. Security Council added a high-level meeting on AI to its agenda on Wednesday afternoon, a sign of the growing apprehension and need to address the issue. It was already slated to hold a high-level meeting on Ukraine with Zelenskyy on Wednesday morning.

For the U.N. chief, this will be his last assembly meeting with global leaders. He previewed his speech last week, telling U.N. reporters that power is shifting in “an era of deep uncertainty."

“At a time when the world faces three existential threats," he said, “international cooperation is more necessary than ever.”

Others will be vying for the spotlight on issues from rising sea levels and funding education to the fight for gender equality. Hundreds of private meetings will also convene in U.N. cubicles, hotels, diplomatic missions and restaurants.

Esther Brimmer, a senior fellow in global governance at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs in the Obama administration, said in-person meetings can help countries hash out ideas that get implemented months later.

She called the situation in 2026 “much more serious and complex than in decades past."

“With that said, I’m also not without hope as well,” Brimmer said. “Over the past decades we’ve learned a lot about international cooperation.”

Edith M. Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/David R Martin)