Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. The scariest thing you can watch on TV this Halloween is going to be the Dodgers’ bullpen.
In today’s SI:AM:
👏 Trey Yesavage shines
🔎 Anonymous figure at the center of gambling probe
🏀 WNBA big board
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A World Series performance for the ages
The Blue Jays have the Dodgers right where they want them—all thanks to a 22-year-old pitcher who hadn’t pitched in a pro game before April.
Rookie starter Trey Yesavage mowed through the Dodgers’ multimillion-dollar lineup in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday in Los Angeles, and Toronto’s hitters touched up Blake Snell and the much-maligned Dodgers bullpen en route to a 6–1 Jays win that put them up 3–2 in the series. That sends the series back to Toronto on Friday, with the Jays needing to win just one of two home games to win their first championship since 1993.
Yesavage was brilliant. He pitched seven innings, allowing one run on three hits with 12 strikeouts and no walks. The lone run scored on a solo homer by Kiké Hernández in the third inning, on an elevated fastball from Yesavage that got too much of the plate. The other two hits were both infield singles by Teoscar Hernández.
It was an awe-inspiring performance that produced more fun facts than I could possibly include here. Here are a few of my favorite ones:
- Yesavage is the first pitcher in MLB history to have 12 strikeouts and no walks in a World Series game. Only two other pitchers even had 11 strikeouts without a walk in the Fall Classic. Coincidentally, both were Dodgers: Don Newcombe in Game 1 of the 1949 Series and Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 in 2017.
- Yesavage’s 12 strikeouts are the most by a rookie in a single game in World Series history.
- Yesavage is the fourth pitcher in World Series history to strike out every player in the opposing lineup at least once, joining Randy Johnson (2001 Game 2), Bob Gibson (1968 Game 1) and Jesse Barnes (1921 Game 6).
- The last pitcher to strike out 12 batters in a World Series game was Orlando Hernández for the Yankees in 2000. Before that, the feat had not been accomplished since Tom Seaver did it in 1973. Only 12 times has a pitcher recorded at least 12 strikeouts in a World Series game. Others to accomplish the feat include Bob Gibson (1964 and ’68), Sandy Koufax (1963) and Walter Johnson (1924). Yesavage is the youngest of the 12.
- No player as young as Yesavage has recorded as many as 10 strikeouts in a World Series game. In fact, Yesavage is the third-youngest player in MLB history to have at least 10 strikeouts in a postseason game, trailing only John Candelaria of the Pirates (14 strikeouts in Game 3 of the 1975 National League Championship Series at 21 days, 355 days old) and Yesavage himself, when he threw 11 K’s 25 days ago against the Yankees.
- Yesavage is the ninth player in MLB history to have at least 12 strikeouts and no walks in a playoff game. (He’s the third player to do it this year, joining Cam Schlittler and Tarik Skubal.) Yesavage is the youngest of those nine players.
- Yesavage only allowed four batted balls with an exit velocity of greater than 90 mph (Hernández’s homer, lineouts by Shohei Ohtani and Alex Call and a double play ball by Tommy Edman). His counterpart, two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, allowed eight such hits, including four with exit velos over 103 mph.
- Yesavage induced 23 swings-and-misses, the most in a World Series game since pitch tracking began in 2008.
All of this is made even more incredible by the fact that Yesavage made his professional debut in April with the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Class A Florida State League. He rocketed through the Toronto farm system, making seven appearances with Dunedin, four with High-A Vancouver, eight with Double A New Hampshire and six with Triple A Buffalo before making his big league debut on Sept. 15. He didn’t exactly come out of nowhere. He was the 20th pick in the 2024 draft after three strong seasons at East Carolina and was ranked among the top 100 prospects in baseball before the start of this season by MLB.com. Still, to have progressed through the minor leagues that quickly and become a pennant winner’s top starter is outrageous.
Part of what makes Yesavage an effective pitcher is the way in which he differs from most others in the league. He throws from an extremely elevated release point, much more of a straight overhand delivery than the three-quarters arm angle that pitchers today favor. He also throws a highly unusual slider that breaks to the arm side rather than the glove side. That, paired with an excellent splitter and a mid-90s fastball, makes him a difficult puzzle for hitters to unravel.
But most importantly on Wednesday, Yesavage buckled down and maintained his composure in the biggest game of his life, less than seven months after he took the mound as a pro for the first time in a spring training stadium in Florida in front of 327 people.
“He located every pitch he wanted to today,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “Game 1, he didn’t necessarily have the best command, and today, I don’t think he missed a single spot, with the exception of down below the zone, which is what he wants to do. He didn’t give us anything to take advantage of.”
The best of Sports Illustrated
- An anonymous gambling cheat named Shane Hennen has emerged as a key figure in the scandal that has engulfed the NBA, but who is he? Michael Rosenberg and Pat Forde report on his criminal history and past experience testifying for the government before the latest indictments.
- Tom Verducci details how Trey Yesavage’s meteoric rise from the minors to the World Series was marked by grit, poise and a moment that proved he belonged on baseball’s biggest stage.
- Greg Bishop unpacks the growing divide among NFL insiders over Caleb Williams, with some seeing steady growth and others questioning his superstar potential.
- In the wake of the NBA’s gambling scandal, Andrew Brandt looks at how the NFL’s attitude toward betting evolved almost overnight.
- Kevin Sweeney examines how the financial fallout from college football’s coaching carousel is reshaping athletic departments nationwide.
- Sweeney breaks down the team ranked No. 2 in Sports Illustrated’s men’s college basketball preseason Top 25—and why this Big East squad is built to make another deep run.
- Before the new college hoops season tips off, SI breaks down the top 10 WNBA draft prospects.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. This photo by Associated Press photographer David J. Phillip of Trey Yesavage completely fooling Shohei Ohtani with a strikeout pitch.
4. A gorgeous one-touch goal by Rose Lavelle in the USWNT’s friendly against New Zealand.
3. Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s back-to-back homers to lead off Game 5.
2. A nice diving catch by Addison Barger on one of the only hard-hit balls Trey Yesavage allowed.
1. Austin Reaves’s floater at the buzzer to win it for the Lakers.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | The Numbers Behind Trey Yesavage’s Historic Game 5 Start.