Rookie Trey Yesavage makes history as Blue Jays move within win of World Series title

Unflappable phenom brilliant, Schneider, Guerrero stun Dodgers with early home runs.

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Published Oct 29, 2025  •  Last updated 4 minutes ago  •  5 minute read

Trey Yesavage #39 of the Toronto Blue Jays is congratulated by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. #27 after pitching the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in game five of the 2025 World Series at Dodger Stadium on October 29, 2025 in Los Angeles. Photo by Luke Hales /Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — When Trey Yesavage started his 2025 season, Blue Jays manager John Schneider hadn’t even had a conversation with the young pitcher.

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That’s how far the 22-year-old was away from the big leagues, four rungs down the minor league ladder and light years away from what he unleashed on Wednesday night.

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An hour or so after another spectacular sunset at Chavez Ravine, and after one of the most remarkable rookie pitching performances in MLB postseason history, Yesavage had pitched his team to within one win of the franchise’s third World Series title.

Yesavage, the powerful and precocious youngster with a lethal splitter, struck out a rookie Fall Classic record 12 Dodgers hitters, leading his team to another lopsided, 6-1 win over the defending World Series champs.

When his work day was done, Schneider greeted the big right hander with a hug and pat on the back as Yesavage bounded into the visitor’s dugout down the first-base line at historic Dodger Stadium.

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Baffling hitter after hitter, Yesavage unleashed a stunner at his confounded opponents who were left trying to make sense of what was leaving his hand and crossing the plate with all kinds of perplexing movement.

Winning two in a row at historic Dodger Stadium sends the Jays back to Toronto with a 3-2 lead and an opportunity to wrap up the title before what will be a frenzied home crowd on Friday night at the Rogers Centre.

With his parents and brother cheering wildly in what was already a deathly quiet stadium, Yesavage was mobbed by his teammates in the Jays’ dugout once his work night was over.

His fifth playoff start in what was a remarkable October was not only his first on the road but his best.

“Just to throw a guy in where we did and to have bigger and bigger games every time he pitches has been pretty wild,” Schneider said. “And he’s responded to the challenge each and every time.”

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The biggest of those was undoubtedly Wednesday’s assignment, however, as Yesavage expertly navigated the hostile environs of Dodger Stadium. He was certainly helped by the fact that teammates Davis Schneider and Vlad Guerrero Jr. had each smashed solo homers with the game just three pitches old.

But calm and cool and clearly primed for the challenge, Yesavage was clearly ready to take care of business.

It’s been such a wild for Yesavage, what began as a feel-good story as he road buses and climbed through the minor leagues to earn a promotion to the big team in September.

But at each step, the talented athlete went from prospect to big-time pro as he served notice to the organization to dream on this kind of night.

That dream becoming reality was still the longest of shots given baseball’s normal path to the big leagues.

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“Every single part of it,” Yesavage said when asked what about his journey has prepared him to unleash the type of effort he did on Wednesday. “Each day I learn something new. I take something away from my game or someone else’s game. Stacking all those days this season has led me to this point.”

And it’s led his team to the lip of the grandest prize in the sport: A 3-2 series lead over the defending champions and two games back in Toronto to finish it off.

Our takeaways from the Jays’ 10th win of these playoffs.

WHAT MAKES THE KID SO TOUGH?

He’s a fiercely competitive and focussed young pitcher, an attribute that allows him to be competitive even when he doesn’t have his best stuff.

But when his splitter, launched at its unique angle from his 6-foot-4 frame, is on point opposing batters look silly.

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Dodgers hitters were certainly stymied throughout, whether it was superstar Shohei Ohtani’s swing and miss to end the third or the five strikes in a row that included all three batters he faced in the second.

Prior to the game, Schneider hinted that some adjustments to that splitter — that wasn’t as sharp when he got the start in Game 1 — would give his young righty some confidence.

From there, Yesavage certainly dealt with confidence and authority, mowing through the Dodgers lineup with such ease that his manager didn’t hesitate to send him out for the seventh and the longest outing of his postseason career.

A rolling infield single from Teoscar in Yesavage’s final inning was just the third hit he allowed while the only one of damaging consequence was a solo homer off a hanging fastball that Enrique Hernandez hit out in the Dodgers third.

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HOW PITCHING WITH A LEAD HELPED

An historic first inning for the Jays bats certainly would have helped ease whatever jitter Yesavage felt.

Davis Schneider, hitting leadoff because of George Springer’s injury, belted the first pitch of the game over the left-field wall to get it started. The Jays home run jacket barely on his shoulders, Schneider watched Vlad Guerrero Jr. hit his own long ball over the same wall two pitches later.

In the process, the Jays duo became the first batters to start a World Series game with back-to-back homers.

The Dodgers kept it close for much of the night, but the relentless and opportunistic Jays offence continued to press with one run in the fourth, a pair in the seventh and another bit of insurance in the eighth.

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DO  THE JAYS HAVE A STRANGLEHOLD?

Winning two-of-three in Los Angeles sure makes it feel that way, allowing them to return home to what will be a crazed Rogers Centre on Friday.

The team is conditioned to maintain a grip, however, and is unlikely to take anything for granted, especially since the Dodgers will send out ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who earned a complete-game win in Game 2.

The Jays will counter with their own ace, Kevin Gausman, who on Wednesday spoke of how much he’s anticipating that task.

“The Rogers Centre is going to be fun,” Gausman said prior to Game 5. “It’s going to be electric. It’s going to be everything that it has been for the last month and more.

“We’re excited to get back there.”

Back with a chance to win a World Series at home to cap what would go down as one of the greatest seasons in Toronto sports history.

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