TORONTO-- The Kansas City Royals pounced early then powered their way to a 14-2 demolition of the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday to move one win away from reaching the World Series for a second consecutive year.
The Royals, with the help of a two-run homer from Ben Zobrist, scored four runs in the first inning then sealed the victory with a four-run seventh to seize a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
Game Five is in Toronto on Wednesday.
"We feel good, we like the way we're playing right now," Royals manager Ned Yost told reporters. "Our offense has been really, really good.
"We have (Edison) Volquez coming back tomorrow. Our defense is always spectacular and our bullpen is primed to go tomorrow too.
"We're in really good shape."
The Blue Jays, who won Monday's Game Three, sent 40-year-old knuckleballer R.A. Dickey to the mound with hopes of tying the series.
But the former Cy Young Award winner gave up five runs in 1-2/3 innings that left Toronto in a 5-0 hole they could not overcome despite scoring two runs in the third and Australian reliever Liam Hendriks providing 4-1/3 innings of spotless relief to keep their comeback hopes alive.
But the Royals ended any chance of a rally roughing up 42-year-old LaTroy Hawkins, who came on in the seventh but failed to record an out and gave up three runs on two hits and then roughed up reliever Ryan Tepera for four runs on five hits.
In a final act of desperation to save his pitchers for what a do-or-die Game Five, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons sent utility infielder Cliff Pennington to the hill to get the final out which he finally managed but not before Kansas City pushed across two more runs to complete the rout.
Pennington becomes the first positional player to pitch in an post-season game in the major leagues.
Alcides Escobar, who sparked the offense with a leadoff single in the first, finished with four RBIs while Lorenzo Cain had three RBIS and Alex Rios chipped in with three hits.
"It was ugly today, no doubt about that. That's all I can say," summed up Toronto manager John Gibbons. "It's a do or die game for us. But they do it all year.
"I think these guys will let this one go and they'll show up to play tomorrow. Not a more important game this season, really. I know these guys will be ready."
LONDON-- Arsenal bounced back off the ropes to land two late sucker-punches and score an unlikely 2-0 win over Bayern Munich after the Germans had dominated an outstanding Champions League match on Tuesday.
Olivier Giroud came off the bench after 74 minutes and headed the opener three minutes later while Mesut Ozil scored with virtually the last kick of the game against his World Cup-winning team mate Manuel Neuer to hand Arsenal a memorable victory.
Their first win in Group F after two defeats rekindled their chances of reaching the last 16 and ended Bayern's run of 12 successive wins in all competitions.
"It was important to reproduce our Premier League form tonight and we did that. We got the balance right between defence and attack," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told reporters.
But for long periods, it looked as if a goalless draw or a Bayern win would be the most likely outcome.
Bayern dominated possession but could not find a way past a superb Arsenal defence in which Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker played superbly and Petr Cech made some important saves.
At the other end, Arsenal had more chances, but never looked like getting the better of Neuer who made one stunning save to deny Theo Walcott from scoring with a header after 34 minutes, but then cost his team dearly when he flapped at Santi Cazorla's 77th minute freekick, allowing Giroud, who had just replaced Walcott, to stoop low and head home.
Ozil scored on a breakaway with virtually the final kick when his shot just crossed the line with Neuer scooping it clear just too late.
The victory means Bayern and Olympiakos have six points apiece, Dinamo Zagreb and Arsenal three each with Arsenal travelling to Munich and Olympiakos at home to Dinamo next.
Bayern, without the injured Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Mario Goetze, still had plenty of potency going forward and although Robert Lewandowski, with 15 goals in his last seven games, was kept relatively quiet, they continually forced Arsenal on to the backfoot.
Although there were no goals before the break, both teams produced football of the highest quality with the pace never relenting from the kickoff, which some 300 Bayern fans missed.
They staged a "stay-away" for the first five minutes to protest over the cost of a ticket for the match, but when they took their seats, applause rang around the stadium from both home and visiting supporters.
NEW YORK-- The New York Mets took a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series with a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.
Hard-throwing Mets starter Noah Syndergaard touched 99 mph with his fastball and kept the Cubs off balance with curveballs and change-ups to rack up nine strikeouts and yield one run on three hits and one walk in 5-2/3 innings for the win.
He was backed by Daniel Murphy, who belted a two-run homer that capped a three-run first inning that Chicago was unable to overcome on another cold, windy night at Citi Field.
It was the fourth post-season game in a row in which Murphy homered and gave him five overall this post-season, tying Mike Piazza's franchise record.
The victory dealt a blow to the Cubs' chances of reaching their first World Series in 70 years as it came against Chicago's ace Jake Arrieta, who was 22-6 this season and had been 2-0 in the playoffs.
The series shifts to Chicago for Game Three on Tuesday, with the Cubs scheduled to start Kyle Hendricks (8-7, 3.95 ERA) against New York's Jacob deGrom (14-8, 2.54).
TORONTO-- The Toronto Blue Jays belted three home runs to record an 11-8 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Monday that blasted their way back into the American League Championship Series.
Trailing the best-of-seven series 2-0 after losing both games in Kansas City, the Blue Jays returned home to the Roger Centre's hitter friendly confines and got a three-run shot from Troy Tulowitzki and a two-run homer from Josh Donaldson in a key six-run third inning that gave them a 9-2 lead.
Ryan Goins added a solo homer in the fifth for the Blue Jays.
Toronto host Game Four on Tuesday.
SHANGHAI-- It proved all too easy once again for Novak Djokovic as the world number one continued his frightening dominance of men's tennis by blitzing past Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to win another Shanghai Masters title on Sunday.
The Serbian, 10-times a grand slam champion, brushed aside the challenge of a befuddled Tsonga 6-1 6-4 to claim his third Shanghai Masters and ninth title of a standout year that has left him being spoken of among the sport's all-time greats.
Djokovic won three grand slams this year, was runner-up at the French Open and since suffering a surprise quarter-final loss to Ivo Karlovic in Qatar in January has made the final of all 13 events he has played.
The 30-year-old Tsonga had shown his serving prowess in taking out Rafa Nadal in three tight sets in the semi-finals on Saturday but against the imperious returning skills of Djokovic he had no answers.
The 28-year-old Serb nullified Tsonga's most potent weapon to break his three opening service games and take a first set which the Frenchman played predominantly way behind the baseline.
Things improved for Tsonga at the start of the second set where he worked hard to fight off break points and stay on serve through the opening eight games as the Serb sauntered through his own service.
But the pressure proved too much, Djokovic pummelling balls to all angles with supreme court coverage at the expense of just eight unforced errors and he broke at the third attempt in the crucial ninth game and served out for victory.
"Today the key was to get as many serves back into play to Jo because he has one of the biggest serves in the game," Djokovic told the ATP website (www.atpworldtour.com).
"He has shown that in the second set, with some break points early in the set. He came up with some aces, some big serves."
It was a second straight tournament Djokovic had won without dropping a set after he landed his sixth China Open title in Beijing last week. The Serb now boasts a 38-1 win loss record on the Chinese hardcourts.
"Generally I felt always in control of the match. I felt like I've done everything right. I didn't allow him to get into the rhythm, get into the match," he said.
Tsonga will be comforted by his strong showing in China, which helped move him up to ninth in the race to qualify for the eight man end-of-season ATP Tour Finals in London next month.
"The first set went quick," Tsonga said. "It's not easy to stop him. He is really consistent on his return. Today I didn't serve well enough, especially in the first set.
"After that, in the second, I served a little bit better, and it gave me the opportunity to have a chance on his serve. But finally I was not able to do it."
The victory was Djokovic's 57th ATP Tour title, moving him within two of Nadal's mark of 27 Masters Series crowns and took his prize money for the year past a record $16 million.
