LOS ANGELES (AP) — Trey Yesavage soaked in Dodger Stadium, filled with 52,175 fans about to watch him pitch in the World Series, and thought back to starting his season in front of 327 spectators in the low minor leagues.
A sandlot story worthy of a movie studio back lot.
“Crazy world,” the wide-eyed Toronto Blue Jays pitcher said. “Hollywood couldn’t have made it this good.”
Just 46 days after rocketing to his fifth level of professional baseball this season for his major league debut, Yesavage pitched one of the best games by a rookie in World Series history.
He set a Fall Classic rookie record with 12 strikeouts, and the Blue Jays opened Game 5 with back-to-back homers in a 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday that moved them within one win of their first championship since 1993.
“The job is not done yet,” Toronto star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. said through a translator.
Davis Schneider and Guerrero connected on Blake Snell’s first and third pitches, the first consecutive home runs to start a Series game.
Yesavage, a precocious 22-year-old, took over from there. His first pitch in baseball’s largest-capacity ballpark was to Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s best player.
“Walking from the bullpen to the dugout, I took a moment to look around the stadium, see all the fans,” Yesavage said. “I was hoping I would send ’em home upset.”
He quieted the crowd and LA’s bats with a sinking splitter, spinning slider and overpowering fastball, breaking the prior Series rookie record of 11 strikeouts by the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Don Newcombe in 1949 against the New York Yankees. Getting six Ks each with his splitter and slider, Yesavage became the first World Series pitcher with 12 strikeouts and no walks.
“I’m kind of blown away by what he did,” Toronto manager John Schneider said.
Yesavage had lasted just four innings in Friday’s opener, allowing two runs in a game the Blue Jays won 11-4.
“Just a complete 180 from Game 1. His command was pinpoint tonight,” Dodgers slugger Freddie Freeman said.
After losing Game 3 in 18 innings, the resilient Blue Jays outscored the Dodgers 12-3 and outhit them 20-10 in the next two.
Toronto leads 3-2 in the best-of-seven matchup and can dethrone the defending champions back home when the Series resumes Friday night at Rogers Centre. No team has won consecutive titles since the Yankees took three in a row from 1998-2000.
“As a group, it’s time for us to show our character and put up a fight,” said Kiké Hernández, who homered on a high fastball to trim the Dodgers’ deficit to 2-1 in the third.
Yesavage allowed three hits over seven innings, and Seranthony Domínguez and Jeff Hoffman finished a four-hitter.
Tommy Edman, a Dodgers switch-hitter, made the rare decision to bat from the right side against the right-handed Yesavage. Edman struck out, popped out and grounded into a double play.
“He’s super deceptive,” Edman said. “Props to him for coming out in a huge game at Dodger Stadium.”
Yesavage went 1-0 in three regular-season starts and is 3-1 in five postseason outings. He induced 23 swings and misses — most in a Series game since pitch tracking started in 2008, one more than San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum in 2010 Game 5.
“Obviously the stuff is incredible, but the maturity to go and handle these moments is unbelievable,” Toronto teammate Bo Bichette said. “I think he’s ultra confident, but you never hear it in the clubhouse, which I think says something about him.”
Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, dropped to 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA in the Series, allowing five runs, six hits and four walks over 6 2/3 innings.
Davis Schneider, batting first only because regular leadoff hitter George Springer got hurt in Game 3, sent Snell’s first pitch into the left-field bleachers.
“Oh! Oh no! No way! No way! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! You got to be kidding me!” Schneider’s father Steve screamed from his seat in the second deck behind home plate.
Davis Schneider mimics different stances during the year, including Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Bobby Witt Jr. and even the Dodgers’ Will Smith during the World Series. The part-time outfielder and second baseman was in an old stance of his from the minor leagues he noticed when reviewing video Wednesday from 2023, when he hit 23 homers for Triple-A Buffalo.
“I might switch it next game, so you never know. But I just like doing it,” Davis Schneider said. “Sometimes I feel like my hands are in a different spot one day and I need to change it. I’ve been doing it my whole career and I’m not going to stop now.”
Snell’s first three pitches were fastballs. Guerrero hit the third into the Dodgers’ bullpen for his eighth home run of the postseason. He is batting .415 with 15 RBIs in 16 postseason games, including .364 against the Dodgers.
“I don’t want to make excuses or anything close to that but, yeah, it’s pretty unlucky,” Snell said. “I just think they’re ambushing a fastball, especially after I go: I’m going to throw fastballs.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shook up his slumping batting order, dropping Mookie Betts as low as third for the first time since 2021 and benching outfielder Andy Pages in favor of Alex Call. It didn’t spark an offense that is batting .202 in the Series and has hit seven of its eight home runs with the bases empty. The Dodgers have scored four runs in their last 29 innings.
Los Angeles also threw four wild pitches in a span of two innings.
Ernie Clement added a fourth-inning sacrifice fly for a 3-1 lead after right fielder Teoscar Hernández came up short on a sliding catch attempt as Daulton Varsho’s drive bounced into the right-field corner for a leadoff triple.
Another run scored on a wild pitch in the seventh by Edgardo Henriquez, who then allowed Bichette’s RBI single. Isiah Kiner-Falefa added a run-scoring single in the eighth off Anthony Banda.
“We’ve got to make some adjustments,” Roberts said. “We’ve been in elimination games, a core group of these guys, and we’ve got to find a way to win a game. That’s it.”
Up next
Dodgers RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Toronto RHP Kevin Gausman start Game 6 in a rematch of Game 2, which Los Angeles won 5-1. Yamamoto threw a four-hitter for the first World Series complete game since 2015 and has pitched the first consecutive postseason complete games since Curt Schilling tossed three in a row in 2001. Gausman allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings.
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