Sports
Passan: Jorge Polanco has the Mariners on the way to a Hollywood ending
TORONTO — Every so often in the Seattle Mariners clubhouse, the “Top Gun Anthem,” full of soaring guitar notes and pick-me-up vibes, will randomly blast from inside a locker. Everyone knows the culprit. Jorge Polanco, the Mariners’ veteran second baseman, is not a fan of silencing his phone.
“But he loves Maverick and Iceman,” Mariners star Cal Raleigh said.
Nobody really minds. When a player is doing what Polanco has done this postseason — rescuing the Mariners from the danger zone seemingly daily, with his latest trick a go-ahead three-run home run that paved the way for Monday’s 10-3 victory — his ringtone could be Limp Bizkit and nobody would utter a peep.
Instead, it’s the perfect soundtrack for this Mariners run, which currently sees them up two games to none against the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series. The “Top Gun Anthem” is an epic ballad filled with the sorts of ups and downs that personify an organization that has spent 49 years alternating among the desolation of mediocrity and the heartbreak of underachievement. The only team in Major League Baseball to never to play in a World Series, Seattle is two wins away from capturing its first American League pennant and is heading home to T-Mobile Park for Game 3.
The Mariners’ dominant position is in large part thanks to a 32-year-old infielder whose feats have earned him the right to be called Iceman himself — and yet that’s not the nickname Polanco wears these days.
“He’s George Bonds,” M’s catcher Mitch Garver said.
Yes, Polanco’s alter ego is the anglicized version of his first name and the surname of Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leader. He earned it earlier this season, Garver said, when “everything he hit was 110 [mph] in a gap or over the fence. It was unbelievable.”
Particularly when considering that last winter, Polanco didn’t know whether he would be healthy enough to keep hitting major league pitching. Polanco, who had struggled for years with left knee issues, underwent surgery in October 2024 to repair his patellar tendon. A free agent, Polanco drew limited interest on the market and wound up re-signing with the Mariners for one year and $7.75 million.
“It’s been a journey, man,” Polanco said. “That’s the way I can put it. I wouldn’t say it’s been bad. I wouldn’t say it’s been easy. I think God just prepared me for this year. I’ve been hurt a little bit, so yeah; but now we here, and I’m glad to be back.
“You just have to have faith. You overcome. Come back stronger.”
Polanco’s strength has been on display all October. It first appeared in the second game of Seattle’s division series against the Detroit Tigers when he hit two home runs off ace Tarik Skubal, who is about to win his second consecutive Cy Young Award. It continued three games later in a winner-takes-all Game 5 when he lashed a single into right field in the 15th inning that advanced the Mariners to their first ALCS since 2001. It didn’t stop there, with Polanco’s go-ahead single in the sixth inning of Game 1 against the Blue Jays on Sunday.
Then came Monday’s fifth-inning blast off Toronto reliever Louis Varland, who fed a 98 mph fastball over the plate and watched it leave the bat at 105.2 mph, flying 400 feet to turn a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 Seattle lead.
“He’s always been a great hitter,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “His swing right now is very short. That ball tonight, I wasn’t sure it was going to go out of the ballpark, but I think he’s just getting that kind of spin on it right now where it stays up.”
That is no accident. Polanco arrived in the major leagues with the Minnesota Twins at age 20, a bat-to-ball savant whose ability to hit from both sides of the plate carved him out a regular role with the team.
“He wasn’t George Bonds before,” Garver said. “He was Harry Potter. Because he was a wizard. He’d just make hits appear.”
Polanco found power five years into his career and maxed out with 33 home runs in 2021, but the degradation of his knee sapped the juice in his bat and left him flailing too often at pitches he’d have previously spit on. Last year, in his first season with the Mariners, his numbers cratered, but the organization appreciated Polanco’s even-keeled demeanor and believed fixing his knee would fix his swing too.
The Mariners right. George Bonds was born during a ridiculous first month of the 2025 season when he whacked nine homers in 80 plate appearances. Polanco had embraced the M’s ethos of pulling the ball in the air. Raleigh led MLB with a 1.594 OPS on balls pulled. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez was second at 1.497. Polanco hit 23 of his 26 home runs this season to the pull side, and both of his homers off Skubal (hit from the right side) and the one against Varland (left) were met in front of the plate and yanked over the fence.
“Throughout the years, I hated going to Minnesota just solely because of him,” said shortstop J.P. Crawford, the longest-tenured Mariner. “The guy single-handedly beat us so many times. We all know the type of player he is when he is healthy, and it’s clearly showing right now.”
Never in the game’s 150-year history had a player logged three consecutive game-winning hits after the fifth inning in the postseason. It’s the sort of performance teams need to win pennants — and championships. As brilliant as Raleigh has been in a could-be-MVP campaign and as conflagrant as Julio Rodriguez was in the second half and as dominant as Seattle’s pitching has been en route to this point, winning playoff baseball takes more.
Like, say, a guy who over the winter was an afterthought hitting cleanup and never wavering, even in the highest-leverage situations.
“What’s most impressive is bouncing back after a rough year last year,” said Bryan Woo, who will start Game 3 on Wednesday against Toronto’s Shane Bieber. “Especially for a guy on his second team, back half of his career. To do what he’s doing — get healthy, come back, help the team like he has — is even more impressive than just playing good baseball.”
Playing good baseball helps too. Polanco has helped get Seattle in a place that barely a month ago looked impossible to conceive. From mid-August to early September, the Mariners lost 13 of 18, trailed Houston by 3½ games in the AL West and held a half-game lead on Texas for the final wild-card spot. From there, the Mariners went 17-4, won the West, earned a first-round bye and charted a course for history.
They’re not there. And yet even Polanco admitted that Mariners players can’t ignore the team’s history and recognize what it would mean to get to the World Series.
“Yeah, we think about it,” he said. “We’ve heard it a lot. We know.”
The knowledge hasn’t deterred them. Raleigh is raking. Rodriguez is slugging. Josh Naylor, who grew up in nearby Mississauga, blasted a two-run home run in Game 2. And George Bonds has shown up in style, cold as Iceman, cool as Maverick, perfectly happy to eschew silent mode in favor of loud contact.
LANDOVER, Md. — Jake Moody had been on the Chicago Bears‘ active roster for all of seven hours by the time he kicked a 38-yard field goal as time expired to beat the Washington Commanders 25-24 on Monday night.
Moody was elevated from the practice squad earlier in the day while Bears kicker Cairo Santos is dealing with an injury to his right thigh. Santos was injured during Chicago’s Week 4 win at Las Vegas and was a full participant in practice during the week.
“We made it through the week and we just said, ‘Hey, [Santos] wasn’t feeling it, and we went ahead and made the change,” Bears coach Ben Johnson said.
Moody, who has been with the Bears since Sept. 13, became the first Bears kicker to boot a walk-off field goal as time expired in the fourth quarter in his debut with the franchise. The 25-year-old was mobbed by teammates as his game-winner sailed through the uprights at Northwest Stadium. He was then carried off the field in celebration.
“It’s a pretty cool series of events,” Moody said. “A couple days ago, I didn’t know I was playing and to get lifted up by my teammates, it’s an amazing feeling. I’m really glad I got to share that moment with them.”
Moody began the season with San Francisco, the team that drafted him in the third round in 2023. He was cut following the Niners’ season opener against the Seahawks after missing two field goals and signed to the Bears practice squad days ahead of Week 2.
Given his limited time with the franchise, several Bears players were still getting to know their teammate as of kickoff. Running back D’Andre Swift introduced himself to Moody on the sideline during Monday’s game.
“First time I’ve spoken to him,” Swift said. “He did a great job. I don’t know when he found out what his role was going to be today, but just coming in, resilient. Just proud of him. Happy to have him on the team, too.”
Moody went 4-for-5 against the Commanders in wet and windy conditions Monday. He connected on field goals of 47, 48 and 41 yards before he kicked the winner with three seconds remaining.
Moody said Santos was an invaluable resource for him during the game.
“Very, very glad that we did travel with him,” Moody said. “He kicked here a fair among and he was able to kind of help me with the wind, with the field surface, all that stuff. So I was very glad to have an extra set of hands on hand.”
At the start of the fourth quarter, Moody had a 48-yard field goal blocked that put the Commanders at their own 37-yard line. Washington, which held a one-point lead at the time, found the end zone seven plays later when Jayden Daniels connected with Zach Ertz for a touchdown.
The Bears cut Washington’s lead to 24-22 on their next drive when Swift took a short pass 55 yards for a touchdown. After a back-and-forth fourth quarter, Chicago found itself in position to win after Daniels fumbled his exchange with rookie running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt near midfield.
The Bears had 3:07 to work with late in the game and leaned on Swift and the ground game. After a slow start to the season, Swift finally broke through with 175 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown.
Near the two-minute warning, Moody was shown on the jumbotron warming up for his chance to help Chicago earn its second straight win in walk-off fashion.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Johnson said. “We’ve seen him in practice now for a number of weeks. That’s one. And then, we also knew what he was capable of. He’s made big kicks in big games over the course of his career so far. So none of that was surprising. I think that’s who he is, and I think that change of scenery was really good for him.”
The Bears say that wide receiver DJ Moore will stay in the DC-area for “precautionary medical evaluation” after he left the stadium in an ambulance. Moore was on the field for all but one play (a kneel down to set up Moody’s game-winning field goal) during Chicago’s final drive.
It’s not clear how the receiver was injured, though he was shown on the broadcast during the second quarter in visible discomfort after taking a hit to his midsection. Moore finished with three catches for 42 yards and two rushing attempts for 10 yards.
Following Daniels’s miscue, Jake Moody’s field goal on the final play gave Chicago a 25-24 win as the late-game dramatics went the Bears’ way this year.
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A wet and wild Monday night game between the Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders turned into a thriller between two of the NFL’s oldest franchises.
Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels fumbled a handoff late in the fourth quarter and allowed the Bears’ defense to recover. Caleb Williams and D’Andre Swift led the offense down the field to set up a Jake Moody field goal attempt. It was Moody’s first day on the roster as the team signed him to replace an injured Cairo Santos.
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Chicago Bears kicker Jake Moody (16) celebrates the game-winning field goal with punter Tory Taylor (19) after an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Landover, Maryland. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Moody, with three seconds left and a steady mist coming down, nailed a 38-yard field goal to give the Bears the 25-24 win. Chicago improved to 3-2 with the win and the Commanders fell to 3-3.
The Bears jumped out to an early 13-0 lead in the first half. Moody was seemingly in good form. He nailed two field goals and Caleb Williams ran for a touchdown to start the second quarter.
The Commanders cut into the Bears’ lead when Daniels threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Chris Moore. Washington got more points on the board after an eight-play, 25-yard drive in the third quarter, which ended with a Matt Gay field goal.
After Moody hit his third field goal of the night, the Bears’ offense went quiet.
Daniels led back-to-back scoring drives at the end of the third quarter and to start the fourth. He found Luke McCaffrey for a 33-yard touchdown pass and then fired a 6-yard touchdown to Zach Ertz.
Williams and the Bears didn’t stay down too long. The second-year quarterback hit Swift on a short pass. Swift made a few Commanders defenders miss and scampered for a 55-yard touchdown. Chicago missed out on a 2-point conversion and was down two points.
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) runs away from Washington Commanders nose tackle Daron Payne (94) during the second half of an NFL football game Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Landover, Maryland. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
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Moody was on point with his field-goal tries, despite one getting blocked.
He was cut by the San Francisco 49ers only a few weeks into the 2025 season, despite having a place in the record books during Super Bowl LVIII.
Moody turned around and etched his name into the Bears’ record books, making the most field goals in a Bears debut with four, according to ESPN.
Washington Commanders wide receiver Chris Moore (19) celebrates his touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Landover, Maryland. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
“It’s always good to have a fresh start. I always believed in myself, believed in my teammates. Shoutout to (long snapper Scott Daly) and (holder Tory Taylor). They made the operation really easy on me. The same with the (offensive) line up front, protecting great on that last one. You can’t draw it up any better,” he told ESPN’s Lisa Salters.
Williams was 17-of-29 with 252 passing yards and a touchdown pass. He completed passes to eight different receivers. Swift led the team with two catches for 67 yards. Luther Burden III had four catches for 51 yards.
Swift had 14 carries for 108 yards as well.
Washington Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu (4) tackles Chicago Bears running back D’Andre Swift (4) during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Landover, Maryland. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) throws a pass in front of Chicago Bears defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo (55) during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Landover, Maryland. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
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Daniels finished 19-of-26 with 211 passing yards, three touchdown passes and an interception. The Bears’ defense had three takeaways.
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