Kent Monkman, Gisèle Gordon among finalists for Governor General’s Literary Awards

NEW YORK (AP) — Salvador Perez homered leading off the fourth inning to spark a four-run rally against Carlos Rodón, and the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Yankees 4-2 on Monday night to even their AL Division Series at one game apiece.

Four relievers held New York in check after an inconsistent Cole Ragans lasted four innings. Tommy Pham, Garrett Hampson and Maikel Garcia singled in runs for the Royals.

Garcia, moved up from ninth to first in Kansas City’s batting order, had four hits.

Game 3 in the best-of-five playoff is Wednesday night at Kansas City, the Royals’ first postseason home game since the 2015 World Series.

“It’s basically like a brand-new series when we get to the K,” Ragans said, referring to Kauffman Stadium.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge went 1 for 3 with an infield single and is 1 for 7 with four strikeouts in the series. Kansas City star Bobby Witt Jr., expected to finish second to Judge in AL MVP voting, was 0 for 5 with three strikeouts, dropping to 0 for 10 in the series.

All four Division Series opened 1-1 for the first time since the round started in 1995.

Giancarlo Stanton put the Yankees ahead with an RBI single in the third, but New York went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position and is 3 for 19 in the two games.

“They were making their pitches when they needed to,” Judge said. “We’ve got to come through in those situations to kind of break it open.”

Ragans allowed just the one run and three hits, striking out five and walking four. Winning pitcher Angel Zerpa and John Schreiber each followed with a hitless inning before Kris Bubic threw two scoreless innings. Lucas Erceg worked the ninth for his third save this postseason.

Erceg gave up a leadoff homer to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and a two-out single to Jon Berti but retired Gleyber Torres on a grounder to end it with slugger Juan Soto on deck. Chisholm’s homer was the first off Erceg since June 12, when he was still pitching for Oakland.

Perez, at 34 the only remaining Royals player from their 2015 championship team, tied the score when he drove a 2-0 slider into the left-field seats. The nine-time All-Star entered 12 for 26 (.462) with three homers off Rodón, an old AL Central rival when he pitched for the Chicago White Sox.

“He falls behind him, and from there started making some mistakes with his secondary (pitches) just in the heart of the plate,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

Yuli Gurriel singled, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Pham’s one-out single for a 2-1 lead, prompting cheers from NFL fans at the Kansas City Chiefs’ home game against New Orleans at Arrowhead Stadium. Pham stole second and scored on a two-out single by Hampson.

Garcia greeted Ian Hamilton with an RBI single that put the Royals ahead 4-1.

Rodón, lined up to pitch a potential Game 5, gave up four runs and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings with seven strikeouts and no walks. Twenty-four of the 32 home runs he has allowed this season have been solo shots.

“Obviously, I want to be better than that — especially how the first three innings went,” Rodón said. “I wouldn’t say I tired out. Just got to be better with those pitches, just more fine with them and get to better spots.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Yankees: LHP Nestor Cortes (left flexor strain) took a step forward when he played catch Sunday, Boone said.

UP NEXT

Yankees RHP Clarke Schmidt (5-5, 2.85 ERA) makes his first postseason start Wednesday. He was 0-2 with an 11.75 ERA in three relief appearances during the 2022 playoffs.

Seth Lugo (16-9, 3.00) is scheduled to start for the Royals. He struck out 10 over seven innings of three-hit ball in a 5-0 win at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 10.

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AP MLB:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

TORONTO – Ticketmaster is enforcing new rules around how fans transfer Taylor Swift tickets amid a surge in reported scams.

The ticket sales giant recently updated its website to say ticket transfers for Swift’s concerts can only start 72 hours before the event.

Previously, Swifties could transfer tickets between Ticketmaster accounts at any time.

Representatives for Ticketmaster confirmed the rule but did not respond to questions about the reason for the change.

It comes after a spike in reported hacks to Ticketmaster accounts that have affected Swift’s Canadian fans, as well as ticket holders for other events operated by the company.

Some customers posted on social media that concert tickets they purchased months ago were suddenly transferred from their Ticketmaster accounts without their authorization.

The company said in a statement it is working to “restore fans’ tickets.”

“The top way fans can protect themselves is setting a strong unique password for all accounts – especially for their personal email which is where we often see security issues originate,” it wrote.

“Scammers are looking for new cheats across every industry, and tickets will always be a target because they are valuable, so Ticketmaster is constantly investing in new security enhancements to safeguard fans.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Nicholas Alexander Chavez has had a “very surreal” few weeks promoting and premiering his first roles in prime time, in a pair of shows debuting within one week of each other.

Chavez, 25, plays Lyle Menendez in Netflix’s “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and Father Charlie, a true-crime obsessed priest in FX’s “Grotesquerie.” Both shows are co-created by Ryan Murphy.

“We were working on the tail end of ‘Monsters’ when Ryan called and said he had a really, really exciting new show called ‘Grotesquerie’ that he was working on,” recalled Chavez. “He was very passionate about the project, and he had a great role in it for me.”

“Grotesquerie” stars Niecy Nash-Betts as an alcoholic detective who has teamed up with a nun (Micaela Diamond) to investigate a serial killer case.

To get into character for “Grotesquerie,” Chavez would listen to music. “Don’t Do Anything Illegal” by Charles Manson was on his Father Charlie playlist. For “Monsters,” Chavez’s prep was different because he was playing a real person and could watch old court videos.

In 1996, Lyle and his younger brother Erik (played by Cooper Koch) were sentenced to life in prison for the 1989 killing of their parents, Jose and Kitty in their Beverly Hills home. The brothers alleged they were sexually abused by both parents for years and feared for their lives. Last week, prosecutors in LA said they were reviewing new information about the case and would decide whether a resentencing is warranted.

Chavez has already achieved success in daytime on ABC’s “General Hospital ” as Spencer Cassadine, a grandson of Genie Francis’ Laura (of Luke and Laura fame.) He played the role of a spoiled prince with daddy issues from 2021 until January 2024. Chavez won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding younger actor in a drama in 2022.

“Soap fans are incredibly loyal, and I’m really, really thankful that they are interested in following my journey, even though I’m not on the show anymore,” said Chavez.

Now that both “Monsters” and “Grotesquerie” are out, Chavez says he’s “itching” to get back to work.

“My life feels whole and complete between the words action and cut. I live for those moments. I think that is the purpose of my entire existence,” said Chavez. “Nothing brings me more satisfaction and joy as a human being than the craft of acting. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.