LOS ANGELES — Trey Yesavage set a World Sequence rookie file with 12 strikeouts, and the Blue Jays opened Recreation 5 with back-to-back homers in a 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday evening that moved Toronto inside one win of its first championship since 1993.
Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homered on Blake Snell’s first and third pitches, the primary consecutive homers ever to begin a Sequence recreation.
Yesavage, a precocious 22-year-old right-hander who began his season in April pitching earlier than 327 followers in Single-A, took over from there.
With a sinking splitter, a spinning slider and an overwhelming fastball that quieted L.A.’s bats and a crowd of 52,175, he broke the prior rookie file of 11 strikeouts set by Don Newcombe for the Dodgers in a 1-0 loss to the New York Yankees within the 1949 Sequence opener. Getting six Okay’s every together with his splitter and slider, Yesavage grew to become the primary Sequence pitcher with 12 strikeouts and no walks.
“Simply have to get within the strike zone,” he instructed Fox after the sport of what he targeted on forward of the beginning. “When three of my pitches are within the strike zone — even two, like a part of tonight — I’m in management. So, simply getting within the strike zone and getting forward.”
Yesavage allowed three hits over seven innings and his solely run when Enrique Hernandez homered on a excessive fastball to trim the Dodgers’ deficit to 2-1 within the third.
Yesavage debuted with the Blue Jays on Sept. 15, his fifth stage of baseball this yr. He made three regular-season begins, and he now’s 3-1 in 5 postseason outings.
He induced 23 swing-and-misses — probably the most in a Sequence recreation since pitch monitoring began in 2008, yet another than the San Francisco Giants’ Tim Lincecum in 2010’s Recreation 5.
“Simply my perception,” Yesavage instructed Fox when requested what made him so profitable in Recreation 5. “Believing in myself, in my protection, believing in [Alejandro Kirk] behind the plate and believing in God. And he appeared over me immediately.”
The Blue Jays may have an opportunity to dethrone the defending champions when the Sequence resumes Friday evening at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. No crew has received consecutive titles because the Yankees took three in a row from 1998 to 2000.
Snell, a two-time Cy Younger Award winner, dropped to 0-2 within the Sequence, permitting 5 runs, six hits and 4 walks over 6 2/3 innings.
Los Angeles supervisor Dave Roberts shook up his slumping lineup, dropping Mookie Betts as little as third for the primary time since 2021 and benching outfielder Andy Pages in favor of Alex Name. It didn’t spark an offense that’s hitting .202 within the Sequence and has solo pictures on seven of its eight residence runs. Los Angeles has scored simply 4 runs in its final 29 innings. And its 1-4 hitters on Wednesday evening (Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith, Betts and Freddie Freeman) mixed to go 1-for-15 with 8 Okay’s.
The Dodgers additionally threw a World Sequence-record 4 wild pitches in a span of two innings.
Schneider, batting first solely as a result of common leadoff hitter George Springer obtained harm in Recreation 3, despatched Snell’s first pitch into the left-field bleachers and Guerrero hit the third into the Dodgers’ bullpen for his eighth residence run of the postseason.
Schneider mimics totally different stances through the yr, together with Aaron Decide, Giancarlo Stanton, Bobby Witt Jr. and even the Dodgers’ Smith through the World Sequence. Schneider was in an previous stance of his from the minor leagues in opposition to Snell.
Snell began with three fastballs, then averted one other one for 22 consecutive pitches earlier than hanging out Andres Gimenez with a heater to finish the second.
Ernie Clement added a fourth-inning sacrifice fly for a 3-1 lead after proper fielder Teoscar Hernandez got here up quick on a sliding catch try as Daulton Varsho’s drive bounced into the right-field nook for a leadoff triple.
One other run scored on a wild pitch within the seventh by Edgardo Henriquez, who allowed Bo Bichette’s RBI single. Isiah Kiner-Falefa added a run-scoring single within the eighth off Anthony Banda.
Recreation 6 will see the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto oppose the Blue Jays’ Kevin Gausman in a rematch of Recreation 2, which Los Angeles received 5-1.
Data from The Related Press was used on this report.
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