{allcanada} Yesavage impresses in season debut as Blue Jays beat Red Sox

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TORONTO — Kazuma Okamoto drove in two runs and Blue Jays starter Trey Yesavage impressed in his season debut as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Boston Red Sox 3-0 on Tuesday night.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had two hits and a run as Toronto ended Boston’s three-game winning streak.

Yesavage (1-0), who missed the first month of the season as he recovered from a shoulder impingement, allowed four hits over 5 1/3 shutout innings. He didn’t walk a batter and had three strikeouts.

Mason Fluharty, Jeff Hoffman, Tyler Rogers and Louis Varland provided 3 2/3 innings of hitless relief as the Blue Jays (13-16) won for the third time in four games.

In the third inning, Andres Gimenez led off with a single and moved to third on a Guerrero double. Okamoto then lashed a drive to the wall that scored both runners before he was thrown out at second base.

Boston left-hander Payton Tolle (0-1) was pulled after giving up back-to-back two-out walks in the fifth. Guerrero singled off reliever Zack Kelly’s first pitch to bring home Myles Straw.

Two innings later, Guerrero was hit in the left forearm by a pitch from Ryan Watson but stayed in the game.

Varland earned his fourth save of the season. Toronto outhit Boston 6-4.

TAKEAWAYS

Blue Jays: Reinforcements will soon be coming to the injury-plagued lineup. Designated hitter George Springer (toe) could be activated any day and right-hander Jose Berrios (elbow) could make his season debut this weekend.

Red Sox: It was Boston’s first loss under interim manager Chad Tracy. He took over as skipper after Alex Cora was fired over the weekend.

KEY MOMENT

Okamoto’s two-run hit put a charge into the sellout crowd of 41,949.

KEY STAT

It was Yesavage’s fourth career regular-season start. He made his big-league debut last September.

COMING UP

The three-game series concludes Wednesday afternoon. The Blue Jays have yet to announce their starter while right-hander Brayan Bello (1-3, 9.00) was tabbed for the Red Sox (12-18).

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{allcanada} Cavaliers take series lead with pivotal Game 5 win over Raptors

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CLEVELAND (AP) — Dennis Schroder scored 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, Evan Mobley hit a pair of pivotal 3-pointers in the final period and finished with 23 points, and the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied for a 125-120 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night in Game 5 of their first-round series.

Cleveland leads the series 3-2. Game 6 is Friday night in Toronto.

James Harden scored 23 points and Donovan Mitchell added 19 for the Cavaliers.

RJ Barrett led Toronto with 25 points while Ja’Kobe Walter added 20 and Jamal Shead had 18 off the bench. All-star forward Brandon Ingram left the game in the second quarter with right heel inflammation.

The Raptors led 74-67 at halftime and scored the first five points of the third quarter. The Cavaliers slowly rallied but trailed 103-100 going into the final 12 minutes.

Cleveland seized control by scoring the first eight points of the fourth quarter. Jaylon Tyson hit a step-back 3-pointer to tie it at 103-all, and a 3 by Mobley gave the Cavaliers a 106-103 lead.

Toronto missed its first 11 shots and was 7 of 28 from the field in the fourth while Cleveland made 7 of its first 11 and was 9 of 19.

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{allcanada} Texier breaks 3rd-period tie, Canadiens beat Lightning 3-2 in Game 5 to take series lead

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TAMPA, Fla. — (AP) — Alexandre Texier broke a tie 1:06 into the third period and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Wednesday night to take a 3-2 lead in the first-round series.

Rookie Jakub Dobes stopped 38 shots to help Montreal move within a victory of advancing for the first time since losing to the Lightning in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2021.

Brendan Gallagher got his first goal in his first game this series and Kirby Dach also scored for the Canadiens.

“It’s obviously exciting,” said Gallagher, who was a healthy scratch the first four games. “It’s been a fun series to watch. I tried to follow their lead and find a way to contribute and I did that.”

Game 6 is Friday night in Montreal, where the teams split Games 3 and 4. All five games have been decided by one goal, including overtime in the first three.

Dominic James scored his first career playoff goal and Jake Guentzel also connected for the Lightning. They are one loss from being eliminated in the first round for the fourth straight season.

Tampa Bay has lost 10 of its last 12 home games in the postseason despite 460 consecutive sellouts.

“We got no choice now. We got to show up or we’re out,” Lightning forward Brayden Point said.

Texier took a long pass from Lane Hutson, skated into the left circle and ripped a shot that bounced off Andrei Vasilevskiy’s glove and into the net for a 3-2 lead early in the third.

“I’m not a 50-goal scorer,” Texier said. “When I have a chance, I just try to put it on net and sometimes you’re lucky it’s in and sometimes not.”

The Canadiens jumped ahead three minutes into the game when Gallagher wristed in a rebound after Vasilevskiy kicked away Alex Newhook’s backhander. Gallagher, the 14-year veteran, spent time the first four games giving the young players advice.

“I was happy for him and happy for us,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said about Gallagher. “Really happy the way he’s handled everything and not surprised the way he played.”

Seconds after James blasted a slap shot past Dobes on a 2-on-1 breakaway, the Canadiens regained the lead. Dach skated down the left side, went around a defender, lost the puck, kicked it from his skate to his stick in front of the net and put it in.

Dach deactivated his Instagram account after receiving online criticism because his defensive lapse led to the winning goal in overtime in Game 2. He had a goal and an assist in Montreal’s 3-2 overtime win the next game.

Guentzel fired a slap shot between Dobes’ legs on another 2-on-1 breakaway to tie it at 2 late in the second. Guentzel has the best playoff goal-scoring ratio among American-born players in NHL history with 43 goals in 79 games.

The Lightning killed off a four-minute disadvantage after Ryan McDonagh’s double minor for high-sticking in the first period. The Canadiens managed just one shot on net during the power play.

Montreal had better scoring chances on two of Tampa Bay’s power plays in the second period. Vasilevskiy stopped Jake Evans on a short-handed breakaway on one of them.

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{allcanada} Draisaitl scores twice as Oilers beat Ducks to force Game 6

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EDMONTON — Leon Draisaitl scored a pair of goals and Evan Bouchard chipped in with three assists as the Edmonton Oilers dug deep to stave off elimination, defeating the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 on Tuesday to force Game 6 in California.

Vasily Podkolzin and Zach Hyman also scored for the Oilers who had previously allowed six separate leads to slip away in the first four games of the best-of-seven playoff series.

Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had a pair of assists. Edmonton now owns an all-time record of 18-3 when scoring first in a game when facing elimination.

Alex Killorn replied for the Ducks who take a 3-2 lead back home in their first playoff series since 2018.

Connor Ingram made 29 stops to record the win in Edmonton’s net, while Ville Husso recorded 10 saves for Anaheim after coming in to relieve Lukas Dostal, who allowed three goals on nine shots.

For the fifth straight game the Oilers struck first, scoring on the game’s first shot just 2:22 into the contest as Podkolzin beat Dostal up high for his second of the post-season.

Edmonton took a 2-0 lead 8:33 into the opening period as a point shot was deflected twice, the second time through Dostal’s legs by Hyman, who recorded his second of the playoffs.

The Oilers took a three-goal lead just 1:14 later as Draisaitl tipped a Bouchard point shot in for his second of the playoffs. That spelled an early end of the night for Dostal. It was the fifth fastest three goals to start a playoff game in Edmonton franchise history.

Anaheim got on the board with their lethal power play 8:26 into the second frame as Mason McTavish dropped it back to Killorn, who extended his points streak to four games with his third goal of the playoffs.

Edmonton responded with a power-play goal of its own a couple minutes later on a wicked one-timer by Draisaitl for his second of the game. Draisaitl tied Wayne Gretzky for the most post-season power-play goals in franchise history at 23.

There was no scoring in the third.

The Ducks outshot Edmonton 24-8 over the final 40 minutes.

NOTES

Edmonton has played the most playoff games of any NHL team since 2022 with 80, two more than the Florida Panthers, who beat the Oilers in the last two Stanley Cup finals before failing to qualify this season … Playing in his 80th career playoff game, Bouchard collected his 88th point, moving into a tie for third place all-time for players through 80 games with Brian Leetch, behind only Bobby Orr (92) and Paul Coffey (92) … McDavid (63 points) passed Adam Oates for the second-most points in NHL history when trailing in a playoff series. Only Gretzky (80) has more.

UP NEXT

Game 6 takes place Thursday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

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