As the 2025 World Series moves back to Toronto for Friday’s Game 6, there’s no baseball tonight, and that’s a good thing because it’s going to take us another day to get over what Trey Yesavage accomplished Wednesday.
The 22-year-old Jays pitcher managed to stack up 12 — yes, twelve — strikeouts in just over 100 pitches during his Game 5 start at Dodger Stadium, breaking the Major League Baseball (MLB) record for most strikeouts by a rookie in a post-season game.
In fact, no one had surpassed that record since 1949, when Don Newcombe struck out 11. At the time, Newcombe was playing for none other than the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Even more than that though, Yesavage is in a league of his own as the only pitcher in MLB history to record 12 strikeouts in a World Series game while issuing zero walks.
You heard that, zero walks. The only damage during his outing came from a solo homer in the bottom of the third inning.
Here’s another impressive stat: Yesavage lasted seven innings on Wednesday, which is quite a feat in the post-season.
Especially in this series, where starters haven’t lasted long, save for Dodgers’ pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s impressive complete game performance in Saturday’s Game 2.
Yesavage has now racked up 11 innings since the start of the World Series, after going three innings in Game 1.
All of this would be impressive on its own. But it’s even more stunning if you consider just how new Yesavage is. Just six weeks ago, he was still in the minor leagues.
He started the year playing low-A ball for the Dunedin Blue Jays in Florida, and rocketed his way through several other minor league teams before being called up to pitch for Toronto in mid-September.
He only had three career starts for the Jays before making his historic playoff debut in Game 2 against the New York Yanees during the American League Division Series.
It’s all very exciting for one of the people who saw Yesavage pitch at a young age.
When he was a teenager playing for the Keystone State Bombers in Pennsylvania, the team had a nickname for Yesavage: The Cheat Code.
“Because anytime you entered Trey into a game, you won,” said Shaun Vernesoni, Yesavage’s former coach and the co-owner of that team. “It’s great to see that translate to the highest of levels here.”
Yesavage was an ‘ultra-competitor’ — even as a teen, former coach says
It’s something Jays manager John Schneider understood based on Yesavage’s minor league performance.
“The fact that we were willing to throw him right in the fire because we felt confident in the work he had done … speaks volumes to how we feel about everyone in the organization, not just players, but staff, too,” Schneider said.
That all seems to have paid off for the Jays as they continue to play for their first World Series title since 1993 — a cool decade before Yesavage was even born.
A couple more Game 5 numbers: Yesavage induced 23 swings and misses on 52 swings — the most by any pitcher in a World Series game since tracking began, according to MLB.com.
Also, according to MLB, those 23 whiffs Yesavage managed to generate represent the most of any pitcher in the World Series since Statcast began tracking in 2008.
Yesavage’s rise has happened at a key moment for the Jays as they strive to beat the Dodgers, the defending champions who have one of the most impressive lineups in the league.
But the starting pitcher hasn’t let himself be too impressed by the Hall of Fame-bound stars on the multi-million dollar Los Angeles roster.
On Wednesday, Yesavage struck out every player on the Dodgers lineup at least once, including Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman. Ohtani is the winner of three MVP titles, while Freeman and Betts each have one.
“Thirty three per cent of the hitters that Trey is facing are MVP award winners, so I gotta be honest with you, I get a little nervous when I’m watching him,” Vernesoni told CBC News Network Thursday.
Yesavage’s former coach recalled how the player touched 90 miles per hour for the first time at age 15, “which was quite the feat.”
Even at that age, Vernesoni says the young player had a unique release point and arm angle that made him hard to hit.
Also impressive were his poise on the mound during Game 5 and superior command of his pitches, including the split-finger fastball and slider, says Schneider.
“Historic stuff, when you talk about that stage and his numbers, getting ahead of a lot of hitters, tons of swing-and-miss,” said the Jays manager. “The slider and splitter were electric.”
Jays fans look ahead to Game 6 of the World Series
Yesavage’s performance Wednesday certainly froze the Dodgers at the plate, but it also helped move the Jays on to the next challenge, and they’re already focused on it.
The team is now just one win away from a World Series title. So what’s in store for Game 6 back home in Toronto?
“I can’t wait to see what the Rogers Centre is going to look, feel and sound like,” said Schneider.
