Take 2-game edge in Wild Card

Aaron Sanchez stayed perfect against the Orioles and kept the Toronto Blue Jays on track for a playoff berth.

Josh Donaldson hit a two-run homer, Sanchez struck out 10 and Toronto beat visiting Baltimore, 5-1, on Tuesday night in the opener of their AL wildcard showdown.

Ezequiel Carrera also homered as the Blue Jays won for the sixth time in eight games. They lead the wild-card standings by two games over the Orioles with five to play.

NAT’S RAMOS DONE

The Washington Nationals’ World Series hopes took a serious blow Tuesday when All-Star catcher Wilson Ramos was diagnosed with a torn ACL in his right knee.

Ramos is out for the rest of the season, including the playoffs, taking one of the most valuable players and a consistent power bat out of Washington’s lineup. He was hitting .307 with 22 home runs and 80 RBIs and was one of baseball’s best offensive catchers.

Manager Dusty Baker said Ramos will have surgery to repair the ligament, which he tore during an awkward landing while catching a relay throw from Ryan Zimmerman on Monday night

The NL East champions will go with a combination of Jose Lobaton and Pedro Severino behind the plate in Ramos’ absence.

l Playing with a heavy heart, Aledmys Diaz hit his first career grand slam and the Cardinals finished with five home runs in a 12-5 victory over the Reds. Diaz returned to the lineup after attending a private ceremony in Florida on Monday for childhood friend Jose Fernandez.

MAD DOG OPEN TO POPE REUNION

In a Tuesday morning interview with Howard Stern in which Chris (Mad Dog) Russo announced a three-year contract extension with SiriusXM, Russo said he “wouldn't say no” if asked to do a once- aweek show on SXM with Mike Francesa after the Pope leaves WFAN. Francesa has said he will exit the FAN Cave when his contract expires in 2017.

In typical Russo fashion, he first ruled out Francesa even wanting to join SXM’s “Mad Dog Radio” team, but quickly reversed field.

“.... If they came up to me and said would you be interested in reuniting with Mike in some capacity on Sirius — once a week or whatever — and Mike was interested I wouldn't say no to that,” Russo said.

|— Bob Raissman

CANADA TAKES EDGE

Brad Marchand and Steven Stamkos scored in the first period and Canada cruised to a 3-1 victory over Team Europe in Game 1 of the World Cup of Hockey finals in Toronto. Game 2 in the best-of-three series is Thursday night.