LOS ANGELES — Trey Yesavage fired a splitter that was so filthy it caused Shohei Ohtani to fall down to one knee after swinging and missing. As the helmet flung off the head of the best baseball player in the world, Yesavage walked off the mound toward the third-base dugout with no emotion on his face.
“I treat every hitter the same,” Yesavage said later. “At this level, every hitter can do damage. Just another strikeout.”
It was an ice-cold response that underscored the temperature in his veins on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium during Game 5 of the World Series.
Yesavage authored one of the greatest pitching performances in Toronto Blue Jays history as he overpowered the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 6-1 win that put his club up 3-2 in the Fall Classic and one win away from a championship.
“Historic stuff,” said Blue Jays’ manager John Schneider.
That’s not hyperbole. The 22-year-old right-hander became the only pitcher in MLB history to record 12 strikeouts with no walks in a World Series game. And his overhaul of the record book didn’t end there:
• Yesavage broke Don Newcombe’s 76-year-old rookie record for strikeouts in a World Series game.
• He became the youngest pitcher ever with at least 10 strikeouts in a Fall Classic contest.
• He struck out all nine batters in the Dodgers’ starting lineup, joining Randy Johnson (2001) and Bob Gibson (1968) as the only pitchers to do that in the World Series.
• He became the first rookie pitcher with multiple 10-strikeout games in a single post-season.
The importance of this pivotal contest was obvious. The team that wins Game 5 of a tied World Series has gone on to capture the title 32 times (66.7 per cent). Before it even began, though, Yesavage’s teammates noticed he was treating his start as if this were an outing in September. Nothing seemed different about him and the moment was never going to be too big, they felt.
When Yesavage finished warming up in the bullpen, he made sure to savour the moment in front of a crowd that would soon swell to 52,175.
“I took a moment to look around the stadium and see all the fans,” said Yesavage. “I was hoping I would send ’em home upset.”
Savage stuff from a pitcher who’s got stuff electric enough to match his moxie.
Yesavage went after Dodgers hitters and masterfully deployed his three-pitch arsenal to generate an astonishing 23 misses on 52 swings. Fourteen of those whiffs came with his slider, while another seven came on his splitter.
The ensuing result was that the Dodgers really had no chance outside of Kiké Hernandez’s solo homer in the third inning. That was just one of three hits Yesavage allowed over seven innings and 104 pitches.
“He’s just so unique. His bad sliders are really good splits,” said Blue Jays’ right-hander Kevin Gausman. “Righties and lefties, it’s just a really tough day for them. And then he’s got that fastball, too. So, I mean, you kind of pick your poison when he has that bulldog mentality, which he’s had every day since he’s got here.”
“Some guys mentally are just built different,” said Chris Bassitt.
Added Max Scherzer: “He has that over-the-top release and the split — it’s just unlike really anything I’ve seen. When it’s on, he’s going to make anybody in the game look stupid. He went out there tonight and really showed it.”
It was a star-making performance that will be talked about for years in Toronto. But that Yesavage is capable of such dominance wasn’t a surprise to anyone inside the Blue Jays’ clubhouse. The right-hander dominated the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS and shut down the Dodgers on Wednesday, manhandling the two best offences in baseball in a matter of weeks.
“He’s real,” said Scherzer. “He can go up against anybody right now. You see it. He’s going up against the best right now and he’s showing that he can handle it. He can do it and get the guys out. So, we have the utmost confidence in him. We believe in him. He’s one of us.”
As Yesavage’s outing unfolded, the Blue Jays’ dugout was mesmerized by what they were watching. Gausman was so locked in that he wasn’t talking to anyone, while Shane Bieber had the sense that, given the oversized circumstances, this might be the best-pitched game he’d ever witnessed.
“I was honestly pulling so hard for him,” Bieber said.
Scherzer, meanwhile, was his usual fired-up self and a clip of him celebrating and tossing a bag of sunflower seeds when Yesavage induced a seventh-inning double play went viral.
“Oh my God, yeah. That double play ball,” said Scherzer, growing animated inside the Blue Jays’ clubhouse. “I’m pitching with him, sitting there and thinking, ‘Oh my God, just throw the split. Throw the split.’ And he did, double-play ball, boom.
“I was just so excited getting through that inning because I knew how huge that was to keep the momentum on our side, to keep the game state where it needed to be.”
The Blue Jays hope to carry that momentum into Game 6 on Friday at Rogers Centre, where they’ll look to clinch their first World Series title in 32 years. Yesavage, of course, wasn’t alive then.
By now, you know his story. The right-hander was pitching in college just last summer before he was drafted in the first round by the Blue Jays. Yesavage opened this campaign in low-A before rocketing through the organization’s system, and all of that led him to this exact moment that saw him deliver the game of his life.
“It’s a crazy world,” said Yesavage. “Hollywood couldn’t have made it this good. So, just being a part of this, I’m just very blessed.”
