USA TODAY Sports’ Gabe Lacques breaks down how the Dodgers dominated the Brewers en route to another World Series appearance.
sports pulse
- Trey Yesavage earned the victory in Game 6 of the ALCS, the sixth start of his MLB career.
- The 22-year-old right-hander was a first-round pick in 2024.
- Yesavage receives rave reviews from fellow veterans Max Scherzer and Kevin Gausman.
The score was about to change with a single hit from a man who had hit 64 home runs during the playoffs. Just a hanging splitter or a misplaced fastball or a cement-mixing slider from a 22-year-old rookie who was in Class AAA ball a month ago, and the Mariners would be on their way to their first trip to the World Series.
However, the Toronto Blue Jays were thinking about something completely different: Trey Yesavage, with six major league starts under his belt, is no ordinary newcomer.
“When he has the ball,” Max Scherzer, the 41-year-old future Hall of Fame right-hander, tells USA TODAY Sports, “we all believe in him.”
And so, Yesavage threw just a split-finger fastball to the MVP, and Raleigh fired a 100 mph worm burner straight to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., starting a fundamentally beautiful 3-6-1 double play that ended with Yesavage blindly finding the pocket with his right foot.
He ended the threat and began an almost absurd sequence of three double-play ground balls in three innings, leading the Blue Jays to a 6-2 victory that squared this series at 3-3 and set the stage for the most heart-pounding delight in sports.
Game 7, World Series winner, loser was left with a winter of regrets.
For now, that loser won’t be the Blue Jays, who overcame a disjointed loss in Game 5 to keep their season alive.
Give some flowers to Guerrero and Addison Barger for their home runs and Barger’s three RBIs, and to closer Jeff Hoffman for his two near-perfect innings of relief.
But know this: The Blue Jays are one win away from their first World Series since 1993 thanks to a guy drafted 20th overall just over a year ago, who started the year in the lowest Class A, climbed the ladder to Toronto in September and braved October’s biggest demons to earn the trust of a veteran clubhouse and, in Game 6, the entire Canadian baseball-watching population.
But how?
“He has a quiet confidence,” says Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman. “He kind of joked that he had pitched in a lot of big games before (turning pro), and it’s funny that he thinks those were super big games. But he really remembered those and how he performed them, just with a bigger crowd.
“He’s not afraid of anyone. Maybe he’s a little young and naive, but he’ll just go after guys.”
That was the only way to escape the trouble that found him in Game 6.
One inning after Raleigh’s double play, the one-out drama returned and Seattle drew a single walk to load the bases again. Now let’s talk about going right at them: Yesavage jumped in front of JP Crawford with two quick hits, and the splitter came back, Crawford hit a grounder to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who caught it, threw to second and was already pointing to the sky before shortstop Andrés Giménez made the turn.
“Their splitter is next level,” says Scherzer. “He’s making the best hitters in the game look foolish with it. It’s such a big pitch that it gets him out of a lot of dangerous situations.”
Do you want one more? Fifth inning, Dominic Canzone single, Leo Rivas strikeout in a split, but now the lineup flipped. Yesavage’s pitch count had reached the 70s, and he had suffered diminished velocity since his first start in the playoffs against the Yankees (historic) and his second in Game 2 against the Mariners (terrible).
What’s more, Rodríguez had scored a three-run home run off Yesavage in Game 2.
So how was your mental state at that time, John Schneider?
“It’s not great,” says the Blue Jays manager.
Don’t worry. Rodríguez swung at a first-pitch fastball and this time it was Giménez’s turn to lead off, the 6-4-3 DP maintaining the emotional advantage – and momentum – in the third base dugout.
That’s no small feat in an American League Championship Series that, from the Blue Jays’ perspective, has been losing-losing-winning-winning-losing-winning. Lower level players might get dizzy from such a whirlwind.
After the magnificent double play of the third inning, the Blue Jays dugout erupted and a 2-0 lead quickly became a 4-0 lead, when Ernie Clement’s two-out triple preceded Barger’s two-run laser into the right field seats.
“It’s everything. It’s a game with a lot of momentum,” says Clement, who had two more hits, making his eight in the series. “You can see it in the last two games: whoever has the momentum gets up and does it.
“For (Yesavage) to make those pitches in those situations shows a lot of poise and maturity.”
He gave them 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs, striking out seven and scoring six in a row to set the tone before dodging trouble in epic fashion in the middle innings.
And with each escape, the 44,764 fans who packed Rogers Center roared, the tension of the night released with each inning.
Not exactly in East Carolina, where Yesavage launched a year ago. It’s not that he was trying to block out the noise.
“That’s not really how I had to deal with it,” he says. “That’s how I could use it to my advantage.”
That’s one way to handle stress, a skill he’s passed on to his much more veteran teammates since the Blue Jays called him up in September, hoping to develop an October weapon out of a guy who rose through the ranks of A, AA and AAA in just a few months.
“That’s what immediately strikes you when you meet him: He’s very down-to-earth, very calm,” Hoffman says. “He has a great presence and the fact that he has it in big games like this is a very good sign, something really great for the Blue Jays in the future.
“You can see the makeup. And he’s got what it takes, and he’s got a great group of guys around him to help him in any way we can moving forward.”
Yesavage’s work is finally done for the year. Every member of the Blue Jays pitching staff expects to be available for Game 7 except Yesavage, who can simply watch and learn and marvel at this incredible opportunity to win a championship ring before he’s even spent a month in the big leagues.
At the same time: he is the reason they are still alive.
Guerrero says: “I’m very proud of him: 22 years old, young, hungry and you can tell he goes out and does everything possible to win the game.”