LOS ANGELES — Trey Yesavage has brought the Dodgers to their knees.
The Blue Jays’ rookie sensation struck out 12 over seven innings in World Series Game 5 on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, setting the all-time rookie record for strikeouts in a Fall Classic game once held by Don Newcombe of the 1949 Brooklyn Dodgers (11).
Yesavage has placed his name among some of the game’s greats with a postseason performance for the ages. He also became just the second pitcher in World Series history with 10 or more strikeouts through the first five innings, joining the Dodgers’ very own Sandy Koufax, who did it in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series. Yesavage is also the first pitcher in MLB history to do that twice within the same postseason.
The 22-year-old rookie has already cemented himself as a star in Toronto. He’s shot through this organization like a comet, from Single-A Dunedin in April to Game 5 of the World Series on Oct. 29. Six months ago, he was making teenagers look foolish with his incredible splitter in mostly empty ballparks across the Florida State League. Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, that same pitch made the greatest baseball player on the planet look just like them.
The image of Shohei Ohtani being struck out by Yesavage in the third inning of Game 5 should follow Yesavage for the rest of his career. If the Blue Jays go on to win the World Series back home at Rogers Centre, it will be one of the defining images of the Series.
Yesavage had allowed a home run to Kiké Hernández earlier in the frame, but he set up Ohtani with a slider to get the Japanese superstar into a 2-2 count with two outs. That’s when he gave Ohtani one of his best splitters of the night, which started over the heart of the plate but tailed and tumbled away from Ohtani. Even Ohtani, the man who reached base nine times in Game 3 and has threatened to wreck this Series entirely, was left to flail at empty air.
The box score will read “Strikeout: Swinging Strike,” but that’s too kind a description of what Yesavage did to Ohtani. The swing brought Ohtani down to one knee, and as that back left knee slammed into the dirt, his helmet came tumbling off, just another piece of Ohtani trying to chase a pitch that was never there. By the time Yesavage bounced off the mound, Ohtani was picking up his belongings in the other batter’s box.
Yesavage forced 23 whiffs from the Dodgers in Game 5, the most of any pitcher in the World Series since pitch tracking began in 2008. The 12 strikeouts were also the most by a pitcher in World Series history while issuing zero walks.
Throw Yesavage’s age out the window. By every measure, rookie or not, this was a World Series performance we’ll be talking about for years.
