TORONTO (AP) — Toronto’s George Springer was back in the lineup two days after being hit on a knee by a fastball, fouling out on a nine-pitch at bat in the first inning and walking in a two-run second of AL Championship Series Game 6 against Seattle on Sunday night.
Toronto was attempting to rebound from a 3-2 deficit in the best-of-seven matchup.
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Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer breaks his bat on pop flyout to foul territory during the first inning of Game 6 of baseball’s American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners in Toronto, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer breaks his bat on pop flyout to foul territory during the first inning of Game 6 of baseball’s American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners in Toronto, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays George Springer is helped by manager John Schneider, left, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., right, after being hit by a pitch during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer falls after being hit by a pitch against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer falls after being hit by a pitch against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer falls after being hit by a pitch against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Teammates and staff help Toronto Blue Jays outfielder George Springer (4) off the field after he took a pitch to the knee from Seattle Mariners pitcher Bryan Woo (22) during seventh inning MLB Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series action in Seattle, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Springer was hit on the right kneecap by a 95.6 mph pitch from Bryan Woo in the seventh inning of Toronto’s 6-2 loss on Friday in Game 5.
X-ray and a CT scan did not reveal a fracture. Manager John Schneider said Springer was able to test his knee by running at a workout on Saturday.
“I talked to him last night, texted him this morning and he was like ‘Stop asking, I’m good,’” Schneider said of his exchange with Springer.
The 36-year-old Springer, a four-time All-Star and the 2017 World Series MVP with Houston, came into Sunday’s game hitting .256 with three home runs and five doubles this postseason. His 22 career playoff homers are tied with Bernie Williams for fourth.
Springer’s 42 extra base hits in 76 postseason games are fifth most, 15 behind Derek Jeter’s record. Springer had at least one extra base hit in six consecutive postseason games, one shy of Devon White’s 1993 Blue Jays record.
Springer entered 14 for 49 in 11 regular season and postseason games against the Mariners this season, with six doubles, three homers and eight RBIs.
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Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer breaks his bat on pop flyout to foul territory during the first inning of Game 6 of baseball’s American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners in Toronto, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer breaks his bat on pop flyout to foul territory during the first inning of Game 6 of baseball’s American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners in Toronto, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Blue Jays George Springer is helped by manager John Schneider, left, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., right, after being hit by a pitch during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer falls after being hit by a pitch against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer falls after being hit by a pitch against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Toronto Blue Jays’ George Springer falls after being hit by a pitch against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Teammates and staff help Toronto Blue Jays outfielder George Springer (4) off the field after he took a pitch to the knee from Seattle Mariners pitcher Bryan Woo (22) during seventh inning MLB Game 5 of baseball’s American League Championship Series action in Seattle, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man who sent a Facebook message that said, “So I raped you,” to a woman he had sexually assaulted in college in 2013 was sentenced to two to four years in prison on Monday.
The sentence came more than a year after Ian Cleary was extradited back to Pennsylvania from France over the assault at Gettysburg College and nearly 12 years after the victim first went to police.
The judge took into account Cleary’s guilty plea, his remorse and his long history of mental illness in giving a sentence below state guidelines. Cleary, 32, said he sent the messages as part of a 12-step program, in hopes of seeking atonement.
Victim Shannon Keeler told the court on Monday that the messages only reopened wounds she had long carried over the assault, which went years without being prosecuted.
“The system meant to protect me protected you instead,” said Keeler, detailing in a powerful 10-minute impact statement the years she spent pursuing charges, which prosecutors are often reluctant to file in campus sexual assault cases.
“This isn’t just my story, this is the story of countless women,” she said.
Cleary faced a maximum of 10 years in prison for the attack, and the two sides had initially proposed a four- to eight-year sentence.
Andrea Levy, Keeler’s lawyer, said the sentence was “less than what we expected and certainly less than he deserves,” but she said there was relief that the case was over.
Keeler told police that Cleary sneaked into her dorm on the eve of winter break, when few people were left on campus, then pushed his way into her room and assaulted her. She was an 18-year-old in her first semester on campus at the time.
Senior Judge Kevin Hess said that anyone with daughters or, like him, granddaughters in college would find the crime “horrifying.”
Nevertheless, he said, “the defendant has admitted his guilt, he’s come forward and even though 10 to 11 alarming years have passed in the meantime, we wouldn’t be here today but for his hope for some kind of forgiveness and contrition.”
Cleary left Gettysburg after the attack and ultimately finished college in Silicon Valley, California, where he’d grown up. He then got a master’s degree and worked for Tesla before moving overseas.
In 2019, he sent the Facebook message to Keeler, and she renewed her efforts with police and prosecutors after noticing them a few months later. In 2021, she shared her experience in an Associated Press story on the reluctance of prosecutors to pursue campus sex crimes.
Cleary was indicted weeks after the AP story was published, and following a three-year search, he was extradited from Metz, France, where he had been detained on a vagrancy-related charge in April 2024.
In court Monday, Cleary, standing just a few feet away, apologized to Keeler and his father.
“I’m committed to getting treatment for mental health and stuff like that as I go forward,” he said.
Cleary’s family members have declined to comment on the case and did not attend most of his court hearings.
Keeler, in interviews with the AP, described her repeated efforts to persuade authorities to press charges, starting hours after the assault.
“I had been thinking about this moment for 12 years,” Keeler said after seeing Cleary in court in July, when he pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault. She called it a surreal moment.
Authorities in the U.S. and Europe tried to track Cleary down after the indictment but seemed unable to follow his trail, online or otherwise, until his arrest in the unrelated case.
Defense lawyer John Abom maintained that Cleary was homeless at times and unaware of the charges. Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett said he had his doubts but could not prove that Cleary was on the run.
The AP typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Keeler has done.
“The system that failed me a decade ago finally delivered accountability, but at a cost. Evidence was lost. Time passed,” she told the court Monday, noting that results of the rape kit she was given that night had been destroyed by the time of the indictment.
“My life moved on, but the impact never went away, not for me, not for my family, not for anyone who had to watch this unfold again and again,” she said.
FILE – Shannon Keeler speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Gettysburg, Pa., Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)
FILE – Sexual assault suspect Ian Cleary departs from the Adams County Court House in Gettysburg, Pa., May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)
