LOS ANGELES — With an instant onslaught of home runs and a rookie pitching performance for the ages, the Blue Jays regained control of this World Series and will head home to Rogers Centre with a chance Friday to clinch their first championship in a generation.
Backed by back-to-back blasts from Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the first two at-bats of the ballgame, Trey Yesavage’s remarkable rookie run continued with a dazzling, dominant performance, as the Jays beat the Dodgers, 6-1, in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
In any best-of-seven series tied 2-2, the Game 5 winner has won the series 46 of 68 times (67.6%). In series with the current 2-3-2 format, teams taking a 3-2 lead by winning Game 5 on the road – before returning home for Games 6 and 7 – have gone on to win the series 20 of 27 times (74.1%).
Yesavage allowed just one run in seven innings of work, striking out 12 and walking none. He became the first pitcher in the World Series to have that many strikeouts with zero walks, and he did it at age 22 and in only his eighth MLB start and his first postseason road start.
The 12 strikeouts were the most ever by a rookie pitcher in the Fall Classic.
“Historic stuff,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “When you talk about that stage and his numbers, getting ahead of a lot of hitters, tons of swing-and-miss. It’s one thing to be in the zone, and it’s another thing to be in the zone and get some swing-and-miss.”
While many fans, in keeping with L.A. tradition, were still stuck in snarled traffic outside Dodger Stadium, the Blue Jay bats created two long and unimpeded drives against two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell.
Schneider, batting in the Toronto leadoff spot in lieu of George Springer and his injured oblique, smashed Snell’s first-pitch four-seamer out to left. And on Snell’s third offering of the evening, the No. 2 hitter Guerrero did the same thing to the same type of pitch.
Three pitches, two homers and a 2-0 lead for the Jays.
It was an ambush unlike any other, for the World Series had never had a game begin with back-to-back blasts. (The only other team to hit back-to-back homers at the start of a postseason game was the 2002 A’s in the ALDS.)
It was the first time all year that the Blue Jays started a game with back-to-back homers.
It was the first time all year the Dodgers started a game by allowing back-to-back homers.
And it was the first time in his entire career that Snell served up homers to the first two batters in a game.
That shocking sequence put Yesavage in a good spot before he even took the mound. Yesavage had trouble getting a feel for his wicked overhand splitter in Game 1, but that was not an issue this time around. The remarkably poised Pottstown, Pa., native, who will still qualify for rookie status in 2026, once again belied his age and experience with a remarkable K display.
Though the Dodgers did get a run off Yesavage via known October hero Kiké Hernández’s homer in the bottom of the third, the kid was in command. He became the first rookie in postseason history with multiple outings of 10 strikeouts or more and just the second pitcher – joining the legendary Sandy Koufax, who was in attendance – to notch at least 10 strikeouts in the first five innings of a World Series game (Koufax did it in Game 1 in 1963).
Not bad for a guy who began the year in A-ball and debuted in the big leagues on Sept. 15.
“Yeah, it’s a crazy world. Crazy world,” Yesavage said. “Hollywood couldn’t have made it this good. So just being a part of this, I’m just very blessed.”
The Blue Jays added insurance off Snell in the fourth, when Daulton Varsho led off with a triple and scored on an Ernie Clement sacrifice fly.
And in a wild seventh, they broke it open.
Snell uncorked two wild pitches and left with runners on the corners and two outs. Reliever Edgardo Henriquez walked Guerrero, and catcher Will Smith couldn’t corral the third wild pitch of the inning, allowing Addison Barger to score from third. Then Bo Bichette banged a single to right to score Andrés Giménez and make it 5-1.
All night, the Blue Jays kept the crowd quiet and the defending champs on the defensive. And a Dodgers team that shuffled its lineup for Game 5 once again did not have the answers at the plate.
So the Dodgers’ repeat bid is on the brink, and the Series is headed back to the same building where the Blue Jays completed their own repeat bid in 1993. That was in Game 6, when Joe Carter walked off the Phillies.
These 2025 Blue Jays are headed back with their own opportunity to touch ‘em all.
