Three pitches. Two swings. One win away.
Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit back-to-back home runs to lead off the game, 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 victory away from their first title in 32 years, the Blue Jays will have the chance to clinch back in Toronto on Friday.
“It means everything,” Blue Jays star Bo Bichette, who returned from injury in time for the World Series, told Sportsnet after the game. “To have this opportunity, I can’t even put it into words.”
Two nights after battling through 18 innings of baseball, only to ultimately lose, the Blue Jays made sure this game was over almost as soon as it began.
The homers for Schneider, on the first pitch of the game, and Guerrero, on the third, silenced the 50,000-plus at Dodger Stadium.
Blue Jays win Game 5 and head back to Toronto with World Series lead
But it was rookie Trey Yesavage who stole the show.
The 22-year-old similarly quieted the Dodgers’ bats, dealing over seven innings while allowing just one run on three hits and no walks.
He also struck out 12 — breaking the rookie World Series record set by Don Newcombe in 1949, smashing his own single-game post-season franchise record set in the ALDS, and becoming the first pitcher ever to strike out that many opponents without issuing a walk.
“Crazy world, crazy world,” said Yesavage, who began the year in single-A and climbed every level of the minor leagues before arriving to pitch for the Blue Jays in September. “Hollywood couldn’t have made it this good.”
Yesavage’s brilliance will go down in franchise lore — assuming this series ends the way the Blue Jays are hoping.
The numbers and records hardly do it justice. Throughout the game, Dodgers hitters appeared to be varying degrees of baffled, frustrated and just plain disheartened.
On the mound? The rookie was equal parts calm, imposing and in command 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 with his splitter returning to form. His signature pitch had eluded him in his previous three starts but it was back in major fashion to garner seven whiffs and eight called strikes.
“Historic stuff, when you talk about that stage and his numbers, getting ahead of a lot of hitters, tons of swing-and-miss … The slider and splitter were electric,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.
“I said it before the game, [he’s] a different pitcher when he has his stuff … I’m kinda blown away at what he did.”
As for Yesavage’s early strikeout of Dodgers megastar Shohei Ohtani?
“Just another strikeout,” Yesavage said.
Of course, it helps to be staked to an early lead.
First it was Schneider, who ambushed a game-opening fastball from Dodgers starter Blake Snell, sending it just over the left-field fence.
Schneider had not started in this World Series since Game 1, and he had yet to lead off a post-season game at all.
Chosen for that spot because of his patience at the plate, the 26-year-old instead got aggressive.
And it paid off, thanks in part to usual lead-off man George Springer, who missed his second straight game due to injury.
“George always preaches, ‘Always be ready for the fastball first pitch leading off the game.’ And George has done it for numerous years and I gotta take some advice when I can get it,” Schneider said.
“I didn’t really think I got it, but maybe playoff baseball [adds] a little bit of juice.”
Then it was Guerrero, who changed Game 4 with a massive home-run swing just about 24 hours earlier.
He saw two fastballs from Snell — who, by the way, had allowed just two runs while striking out 28 hitters in 21 post-season innings before facing the Blue Jays — and rocketed the second one well past Schneider’s homer in left field.
Snell didn’t throw another fastball for the rest of the inning.
“You have to be ready to hit when he comes over the plate, so Schneid was and Vlad was. That was a nice start for us to get a little two-run cushion for Trey in this environment,” said manager John Schneider.
Yesavage’s lone stumble came in the third inning when he coughed up a solo home run to Dodgers outfielder Enrique Hernández.
But a stumble by the Dodgers in the next inning restored the Blue Jays’ two-run lead, when ex-Jay Teoscar Hernandez misplayed a ball in right field, turning what should have been a single for Daulton Varsho into a triple.
One batter later, Varsho scored on a sacrifice fly from Ernie Clement.
The Jays went on to take advantage of more Dodgers miscues in the seventh inning, tacking on two runs thanks to three wild pitches, three walks and a clutch base hit from Bichette, whose return has been more than welcome.
“Balls in the dirt, they [advanced]. Guys in scoring position, they were getting in. They just outplayed us today,” said Dodgers Game 3 hero Freddie Freeman.
After one more run — scored by Clement, who extended his hitting streak to 11, one shy of the franchise post-season record held by catcher Pat Borders in 1992 — and two solid relief innings from Seranthony Domínguez and Jeff Hoffman, Toronto sealed the win.
And just like that, the Blue Jays can now smell a championship.
Surely, every Canadian’s senses will be ignited on Friday. The Jays manager says he’s ready to go back to Toronto to see for himself.
“I can’t wait to see what the Rogers Centre’s gonna look, feel and sound like,” Schneider said.
