By RONALD BLUM
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Trey Yesavage set a World Collection rookie document with 12 strikeouts, and the Toronto Blue Jays opened Sport 5 with back-to-back homers in a 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday that moved them inside one win of their first championship since 1993.
Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homered on Blake Snell’s first and third pitches, the primary consecutive homers to start out a Collection recreation.
Yesavage, a precocious 22-year-old right-hander who began his season final April pitching earlier than 327 followers in Class A, took over from there.
With a sinking splitter, spinning slider and overpowering fastball that quieted LA bats and a crowd of 52,175, he broke the prior rookie document of 11 strikeouts set by Don Newcombe for the Dodgers in a 1-0 loss to the New York Yankees within the 1949 opener. Getting six Ks every together with his splitter and slider, Yesavage grew to become the primary Collection pitcher with 12 strikeouts and no walks.
Yesavage allowed three hits over seven innings and his solely run when Kiké Hernández homered on a excessive fastball to trim the Dodgers’ deficit to 2-1 within the third.
Yesavage debuted with the Blue Jays on Sept. 15, his fifth degree of baseball this 12 months. He made three regular-season begins and now could be 3-1 in 5 postseason outings.
He induced 23 swings and misses — most in a Collection recreation since pitch monitoring began in 2008, another than San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum in 2010 Sport 5.
Toronto may have an opportunity to dethrone the defending champions when the Collection resumes Friday night time at Rogers Centre. No staff has received consecutive titles for the reason that New York Yankees took three in a row from 1998-2000.
Snell, a two-time Cy Younger Award winner, dropped to 0-2 within the Collection, permitting 5 runs, six hits and 4 walks over 6 2/3 innings.
Los Angeles supervisor Dave Roberts shook up his slumping lineup, dropping Mookie Betts as little as third for the primary time since 2021 and benching outfielder Andy Pages in favor of Alex Name. It didn’t spark an offense that’s hitting .202 within the Collection and has solo pictures on seven of its eight house runs. Los Angeles has scored simply 4 runs in its final 29 innings.
The Dodgers additionally threw 4 wild pitches in a span of two innings.
Schneider, batting first solely as a result of common leadoff hitter George Springer received harm in Sport 3, despatched Snell’s first pitch into the left-field bleachers and Guerrero hit the third into the Dodgers’ bullpen for his eighth house run of the postseason.
Schneider mimics completely different stances in the course of the 12 months, together with Aaron Decide, Giancarlo Stanton, Bobby Witt Jr. and even the Dodgers’ Will Smith in the course of the World Collection. Schneider was in an previous stance of his from the minor leagues in opposition to Snell.
Snell began with three fastballs, then averted one other one for 22 consecutive pitches earlier than putting out Andres Giménez with a heater to finish the second.
Ernie Clement added a fourth-inning sacrifice fly for a 3-1 lead after proper fielder Teoscar Hernández got here up quick on a sliding catch try as Daulton Varsho’s drive bounced into the right-field nook for a leadoff triple.
One other run scored on a wild pitch within the seventh by Edgardo Henriquez, who allowed Bo Bichette’s RBI single. Isiah Kiner-Falefa added a run-scoring single within the eighth off Anthony Banda.
Up subsequent
Dodgers RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Toronto RHP Kevin Gausman begin Sport 6 in a rematch of Sport 2, which Los Angeles received 5-1. Yamamoto pitched a four-hitter for the primary World Collection full recreation since 2015 and has pitched the primary consecutive postseason full video games since Curt Schilling had three in a row in 2001. Gausman allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings.
