World Series 2025: Trey Yesavage’s record 12-strikeout night puts Blue Jays up 3-2 vs. Dodgers

Trey Yesavage has a new place in baseball history. The Toronto Blue Jays are 3-2 in the World Series. The Los Angeles Dodgers have to do some soul searching.

Behind a rookie-record 12 hits from 22-year-old Yesavage, the Blue Jays earned another win, 6-1, over the Dodgers in Game 5 of the Fall Classic. They will return to Rogers Center with two chances to win their first championship since 1993.

advertisement

Game 6 is scheduled for Friday at 8pm ET in Toronto.

The night belonged to Yesavage, who was drafted last season, started 2025 in Low-A Dunedin and didn’t make his MLB debut until mid-September. The Dodgers’ offense was struggling heading into Wednesday, but Yesavage dominated for Los Angeles on Wednesday.

He struggled in Game 1 mainly due to a lack of feel for his signature splitter, instead leaning on a slider that could come and go. Both pitches worked to a brutal degree in Game 5, as the Dodgers whiffed 14 times on 29 swings against the slider and seven times on 10 swings against the splitter. Overall, Yesavage achieved an impressive 44% whiff rate.

advertisement

“Historic stuff,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “It’s one thing to be in the zone, it’s another thing to be in the zone and get some swings and misses. The passing and splitting was electric. I said that before the game, he’s a different pitcher when he has his stuff. Game one didn’t have a split feel, so I was blown away by what he did.”

Every Dodger in the revamped starting lineup has struck out at least once and their 2-3-4 hitters have struck out twice each, for good measure.

“It’s a crazy world,” Yesavage said after the game. “Hollywood couldn’t have made it this good. So, to be a part of this, I’m very lucky.”

advertisement

His only error was an inbound fastball that was penalized by Kiké Hernandez on the Dodgers’ only run.

The Blue Jays struck out Blake Snell early, and then the Dodgers homered themselves

Toronto got all the runs it needed by the time Yesavage took the mound in the first. Both Yesavage and Blake Snell were trying to bounce back from rough starts in Game 1, and for Snell, that effort went south on the first three pitches of the game.

Blue Jays slugger Davis Schneider ambushed a fastball on Snell’s first pitch, then Vladimir Guerrero Jr. crushed an inside error to make it 2-0 Toronto before the first out. This made the Jays the first team in World Series history to lead with consecutive home runs.

For the homer, Schneider credited George Springer, who remained out with a side injury suffered in Game 3, for the decision to plan the fastball.

advertisement

“Snell is a really good player. Last time out, I only got a few fastballs, so I was kind of playing with the fastball,” Schneider said. “George always advises you to always be ready for the first fast shot before a game, and George has done that for many years, and I should take some advice when I can get it.”

Snell actually settled in well after the first inning, but gave up his fastball to a lineup that had spent the postseason destroying them. It got tough for him when he reached the seventh inning, where he allowed two more baserunners and had to exit the game on 116 pitches.

Both innings ended in scoring, and the first epitomized the Dodgers’ night. Addison Barger reached first on a groundout that reached the outfield, got second base on a Snell wild pitch, took third on another Snell wild pitch and then scored on an Edgardo Henriquez wild pitch.

This was the first time in World Series history that a team threw three wild pitches in one inning.

advertisement

Just under two days ago, the Dodgers survived a marathon 18-inning home run to take a 2-1 lead. However, that game also exposed their offensive woes, with them failing to score against a Blue Jays team that struggled as much as they faced in the postseason. That continued over the next two games, and Los Angeles now needed a complete offensive revitalization if it wanted to win its first back-to-back MLB championships since 2000.

“It’s not great,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “You clearly see these guys finding ways to get hits, move the baseball forward, and we’re not doing a good job of that… We have that ability. We’ve got to make some adjustments.”

advertisement

Can the Dodgers still pull this off?

The Dodgers will try to do that against Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Gausman in front of a hostile Toronto crowd on Friday in Game 6. On the bright side, on the mound they will have the only pitcher who has performed well against Toronto’s lineup, Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Yamamoto made MLB history with his second straight complete at-bat in Game 2. He was easily the most consistent pitcher for the Dodgers all year and has postseason bona fide dating back to his career in Japan. However, the Blue Jays lineup will take a second look at him, which has so far been a tough time for rookie pitchers.

“He has really good stuff,” Schneider said. “He’s a smart pitcher and hopefully we can get to him early and get him throwing some pitches and getting into the bullpen and doing what we’ve been doing all year with rookie pitchers.”

advertisement

In theory, Yamamoto vs. Gusman is an advantage for the Dodgers based on what we’ve seen this year. And if they can push this series to seven games, no one will enter Rogers Center with complete confidence on Saturday. However, as for the location of their crime, that’s a pretty huge “if.”

Follow along with Yahoo Sports for live updates, highlights and more from Game 5 of the 2025 World Series: