The Numbers Behind Trey Yesavage’s Historic Game 5 Start

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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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: 

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.”

… 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.