Monday saw both the National League and American League Championship Series in action. The Mariners went into Game 2 of their series hoping to take a commanding 2-0 lead for the pennant against Toronto, while the Brewers and Dodgers both hoped to get a jump in Game 1 of theirs in Milwaukee.

There were homers aplenty up north of the border, while pitching was the name of the game in Milwaukee. Let’s take a look at what went down on Monday.

American League Championship Series Game 2

Mariners 10, Blue Jays 3
(Seattle leads series 2-0)

With a chance to make a major statement in Game 2 of the ALCS, the Mariners kicked open the gate and did just that in the first inning in Toronto. For the Jays, Trey Yesavage allowed the first two Seattke hitters to reach base thanks to some shaky control, setting the stage for Julio Rodríguez. Their superstar would not miss his chance, as he used his strong hands to yank a pitch around the left field foul pole, giving the M’s a 3-0 lead before they even took the field.

The Blue Jays would fight right back against Logan Gilbert, however. After George Springer led the bottom of the first off with a double, a Nathan Lukes infield single, which included a wild throw to first, allowed Springer to score on the play. Alejandro Kirk singled later in the inning to cut their deficit to just one. In the following inning, Lukes wiped the slate clean with another RBI knock to make it 3-3.

Neither Gilbert nor Yesavage recorded an out after the fourth inning, but both offenses quieted down in Game 2 until the fifth inning. There, the Seattle bats began their big and ultimately final push. In the bottom half, Jorge Polanco continued his hot postseason when he swatted a three-run homer, putting his guys up 6-3.

J.P. Crawford pitched in with and RBI single in the sixth, before Josh Naylor started putting nails into the coffin with a two-run blast in the seventh. After the dust settled in the seventh, the Mariners were up by the final score of 10-3.

The Seattle ‘pen closed it out from there, and the Mariners will now be heading home with a 2-0 lead in the ALCS. There is plenty of baseball left to play, but the Mariners have to feel pretty good heading into Game 3.

National League Championship Series Game 1

Dodgers 2, Brewers 1
(Los Angeles leads series 1-0)

In a stark contrast with the Junior Circuit, the National League Championship kicked off with a certified pitcher’s duel.

Game 1 of this series pitted Blake Snell against a caravan of Brewers pitchers, which proved to cause plenty of problems for the bats on both sides. Aaron Ashby was the conductor of the train for the Milwaukee pitching staff, pitching one clean inning before handing the ball to Quinn Priester for the bulk role. Although he allowed his fair share of traffic on the bases, the young righty tossed four scoreless innings.

The third inning ended on one of the more bizarre plays you’ll see on a diamond. Max Muncy nearly hit a grand slam into center, which Sal Frelick evidently knocked down, but did not catch at the top of the wall, ultimately resulting in force outs at both home and third base. From both the framing of pure oddity but also of poor baserunning, it is a hard-to-believe play.

Although the methods were very different, the Dodgers fared just as well on the mound. Blake Snell was in peak form on Monday, and the Dodgers enjoyed that form for most of the game. The uber-talented lefty tossed eight innings for Los Angeles, a rare feat for him, and it could not have gone much better. Snell allowed just one hit, a single to Caleb Durbin in the third — he ran into an out on the bases anyhow, and stood as the only baserunner the lefty had to deal with in his outing. Over those eight stellar innings, he struck out ten.

The Dodgers finally fired up the scoreboard in the sixth inning, when the ever-dangerous Freddie Freeman belted a solo shot to kick things off against Chad Patrick.

Freeman’s blast stood as the only offense of note for the majority of this ballgame, as the Dodgers entered the ninth inning still ahead just 1-0. They added some insurance in the top of the ninth, when Mookie Betts worked a bases loaded walk to put them up 2-0.

Roki Sasaki was called upon to lock down Game 1 for LA, though a walk and a double, followed by a sac fly from Jackson Chourio suddenly had the tying run on third base for the Brewers. Blake Treinen took over for Sasaki with two outs, and though he began his appearance with a walk to load the bases, he struck out Brice Turang on a high heater to put a wrap on Game 1.