Blue Jays' rookie Trey Yesavage dominates Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series
Photo credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
The Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-1 in Game 5, and are just one win away from their first World Series title in 32 years.
The victory was the Blue Jays' second in a row on the road at Chavez Ravine after losing Game 3, which went 18 innings on Monday.
When Trey Yesavage started his 2025 season, Blue Jays manager John Schneider hadn't even had a conversation with the young pitcher.
The 22-year-old who started the season in low-A and progressively has made bigger and bigger starts across five levels, dominated in a way the Blue Jays could only have imagined in their dreams during his biggest outing yet.
There have been 2 games in MLB postseason history where a pitcher:
struck out 10+ total batters
struck out 5+ consecutive batters
struck out 50% of batters faced
allowed fewer than 5 baserunners (H/BB/HBP)
earned the win
Both were by the same 22-year-old rookie: Trey Yesavage.
struck out 10+ total batters
struck out 5+ consecutive batters
struck out 50% of batters faced
allowed fewer than 5 baserunners (H/BB/HBP)
earned the win
Both were by the same 22-year-old rookie: Trey Yesavage.
Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr had their hitting shoes on from the get go
Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr hit tone-setting home runs on the first and third pitches of the game from Blake Snell, the offence added on late and they all boarded the flight north up 3-2 in the best-of-seven.
Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. came out swingin' 💪
Yesavage, the powerful and precocious youngster with a lethal splitter, struck out a rookie Fall Classic record 12 Dodgers hitters, leading his team to another lopsided, 6-1 win over the defending World Series champs.
When his work day was done, Schneider greeted the big right hander with a hug and pat on the back as Yesavage bounded into the visitor's dugout down the first-base line at historic Dodger Stadium.
Trey Yesavage dominates Dodgers in record setting outing in game 5 of the World Series
«Historic stuff,» the manager said. «When you talk about that stage and his numbers, getting ahead of a lot of hitters, tons of swing-and-miss.»
Yesavage certainly sensed the magic and the magnitude of the moment as well.
«Yeah, it's a crazy world,» Yesavage said of his own personal journey. «Hollywood couldn't have made it this good. Just being a part of this, I'm just very blessed.»
So, too, are the Blue Jays for drafting him 20th overall last year, carefully monitoring his innings and then leaving open the possibility for the unbelievable to become reality.
Making his fifth post-season start but first on the road, Yesavage shook off the heckling of Dodgers fans as he warmed in the bullpen, pitching coach Pete Walker recalls him saying, «Isn't this great? I (expletive) love this», and then faced down Shohei Ohtani right out of the gate, inducing a weak chopper to the mound that showed immediately he was up to the task.
Over the next seven innings he overmatched the Dodgers, allowing one run on three hits with no walks and 12 strikeouts, establishing multiple bests for a rookie along the way.
All TWELVE of Trey Yesavage's strikeouts tonight 👀
The seven innings for Yesavage marked his longest outing of the season, topping the six he worked for low-A Dunedin versus Clearwater on May 1.
The 104 pitches he threw marked another season high, surpassing the 94 he threw Sept. 27 against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Kevin Gausman starts against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 6 for a championship Friday night at Rogers Centre as Toronto has two chances to rewrite L.A.'s 2025 coronation into a 2026 redemption story.
«The Rogers Centre is going to be fun,» Gausman said prior to Game 5. «It's going to be electric. It's going to be everything that it has been for the last month and more. We're excited to get back there.»
Back with a chance to win a World Series at home to cap what would go down as one of the greatest seasons in Toronto sports history.
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