LOS ANGELES — A starting pitcher stepped up to dominate Game 5 and tip the World Series in his team’s favor.
It was not the one with two Cy Young Awards. It was the one who started this season pitching in the Class-A Florida State League for the Dunedin Blue Jays.
Rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage struck out 12 Dodgers and allowed just three hits in seven innings as the Toronto Blue Jays won Game 5, 6-1, Wednesday night and took a three-games-to-two advantage in the World Series.
After splitting the first two games in Toronto, the Dodgers lost two of three at home. If the defending champions are going to go back-to-back, they will have to win back-to-back games in Toronto. Game 6 is Friday night with Game 2 hero Yoshinobu Yamamoto scheduled to pitch for the Dodgers.
Yesavage’s 12 strikeouts in Game 5 are the most ever by a rookie pitcher in the World Series, topping Brooklyn Dodger Don Newcombe’s 11 in Game 1 of the 1949 World Series.
Yesavage made $57,204 in MLB this season – the pro-rated portion of the major-league minimum after he was promoted in September. The Dodgers’ Game 5 lineup made more than $148 million. But that lineup seems to have started its winter hibernation early – and threatens to take the down the team’s hopes for a repeat championship.
Game 5 was the fifth time in the past 11 postseason games that the Dodgers managed just two runs or less. Since scoring 18 runs in their two-game dismissal of the Cincinnati Reds in the Wild Card Series, the Dodgers have averaged just 3.5 runs per game over their next 13 postseason games. They have scored just four in their past 29 innings against a Blue Jays team that got here on the strength of its hitting, not its pitching.
The 20th pick in last year’s draft, Yesavage raced through the Blue Jays’ system to make his major-league debut in September. He has been a postseason revelation, striking out 39 in 26 innings over five postseason starts.
The 6-foot-4 right-hander’s unusually-high release point and an exceptional splitter have been the main drivers of his success. But the Dodgers were able to lay off the pitch. They swung at just 10 of the 30 he threw.
It was his slider that proved devastating. He got 14 of his 23 swings-and-misses with that pitch, throwing it more often than either his splitter or fastball.
Yesavage retired the first seven Dodgers in order, the last five on consecutive strikeouts before Kiké Hernandez drove a high fastball into the left-field pavilion for a solo home run. The Dodgers’ only other hits off the rookie were infield singles by Teoscar Hernandez in the fourth and seventh innings.
The lack of offense required a shutout from Dodgers starter Blake Snell. That possibility disappeared on the game’s first pitch.
Davis Schneider hit the first one for a leadoff home run. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sent Snell’s third pitch of the game into the left-field pavilion as well. It was the first time a World Series game started with back-to-back home runs.
Snell wasn’t bad after that. He got touched for another run in the fourth inning thanks to the latest entry on Teoscar Hernandez’s highlight-reel of poor defense.
Criticized during the regular season for his occasional lapses in effort on defense, Teoscar Hernandez overcompensated on Daulton Varsho’s pop-up near the right field line. Hernandez made an ill-conceived – and poorly executed – sliding attempt, turning Varsho’s hit into a triple. The Blue Jays cashed it in immediately with a sacrifice fly by Ernie Clement.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts came to get Snell after 116 pitches with Guerrero coming up again in the seventh. And the Blue Jays romped like kids turned loose in a ball pit when they got into the Dodgers’ bullpen.
Edgardo Henriquez walked Guerrero, yanking ball four so far wide of the plate it went past catcher Will Smith to the backstop. Henriquez didn’t retire any of the three batters he faced, sandwiching two walks around an RBI single by Bo Bichette.
Anthony Banda shut down that inning but gave up another run in the eighth.
More to come on this story.
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