Three ropes. Two swings. One victory away.
Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit back-to-back home runs to take the game ahead, starter Trey Yesavage dominated and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-1 in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday.
Now just one win away from their first title in 32 years, the Blue Jays will have a chance to return to Toronto on Friday.
“This means everything,” Blue Jays star Bo Bichette, who returned from injury for the World Series, told Sportsnet after the game. “To have this opportunity, I can’t even put it into words.”
Two nights after they went 18 innings of baseball and ultimately lost, the Blue Jays made sure this game was over almost as soon as it started.
Schneider's homers on the first pitch of the game and Guerrero on the third silenced the more than 50,000 crowd at Dodger Stadium.
Rookie starter Trey Yesavage pitched a pitching practice to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5, sending the Jays back to Toronto with a chance to win the World Series.
A brutal outing for a rookie pitcher.
But it was newcomer Trey Yesavage who stole the show.
The 22-year-old similarly quieted the Dodgers' bats, pitching over seven innings while allowing just one run on three hits and no walks.
He also struck out 12 times, breaking the World Series rookie record set by Don Newcomb in 1949, breaking his own single-game franchise post-season record set in the ALDS, and becoming the first pitcher ever to strike out that many batters without walking.
“It’s a crazy world, it’s a crazy world,” said Yesavage, who started the year in singles and worked his way up through the minor leagues before taking the field for the Blue Jays in September. “Hollywood couldn't have done it that well.”
Yesavage's brilliance will go down in franchise history — assuming this series ends the way the Blue Jays hope.
The numbers and records hardly do this justice. Throughout the game, the Dodgers' hitters looked varying degrees of confused, frustrated and just plain frustrated.
On the mound? The rookie was equal parts calm, imposing and commanding, despite all the fans rooting against him and the “crap talk” he said he heard before the game in the bullpen.
“I was hoping I would send them home upset,” Yesavage said.
He did just that, dominating as he returned the splitter to form. His signature pitch had eluded him in three previous starts, but it was back in vogue with seven whiffs and eight called strikes.
“Historical stuff, when you talk about this pitch and his numbers, getting ahead of a lot of hitters, tons of swings and misses… The slider and the splitter were electric,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.
“I said this before the game, [he’s] another pitcher when he has his stuff…I'm just shocked at what he did.”
As for Yesavage's early outing of Dodgers megastar Shohei Ohtani?
“Just another out,” Yesavage said.
Homers back to back
Of course, it helps to bet on early leadership.
First it was Schneider, who ambushed a fastball early in the game from Dodgers starter Blake Snell, sending it straight over the left-field fence.
Schneider hasn't started this World Series since Game 1 and has yet to pitch a postseason game at all.
Selected for the spot because of his patience at the plate, the 26-year-old instead became aggressive.
And it paid off, thanks in part to regular front-rower George Springer, who missed his second straight game with injury.
“George always preaches, 'Always be ready for the first pitch of your fastball leading into the game.' And George has been doing this for many years, and I will need to consult him when I can get it,” Schneider said.
“I actually didn't think I realized it, but maybe baseball playoffs [adds] some juice.”
