A tale of two adjustments: Blue Jays seize World Series with 3-2 advantage
Game 5 of the World Series was a rematch between two pitchers, Blake Snell and Trey Yesavich, both of whom were dissatisfied with their performances in Game 1 of the Series. That game turned into a bullpen battle, and of course, neither starter wanted to repeat that mistake. With the series tied at two, whichever pitcher rebounds better could lead the team to Toronto with a 3-2 lead and an upper hand in the championship game. Both starters went deep into the game, but ultimately the Blue Jays got the better of Snell. They took an early lead by several points, then broke through and eventually pushed the Dodgers into a corner, winning 6-1 and falling one step short of the third championship in franchise history.
Through the first three rounds of the postseason, Snell went straight to hitters, overwhelming them in the strike zone to get deep into games. However, he tried a new strategy to start the World Series. The Blue Jays are giving opposing pitchers maddening problems. They look for pitches early in the count and take big, extra base-seeking swings when possible. Their patience outside the strike zone was also frustrating. In Game 1, Snell tried to get to the edge of the zone early but paid the price in runners and pitches. He limited the damage for a while, but also wore himself out and gave Toronto too many free runners in the process.
On Wednesday, he had a new plan. That direct approach has served Snell well all month. It would do him no good to be away from it. He was so scared of Toronto’s power that he dunked out of the game. Not anymore. Snell’s first pitch of the game was a fastball high to Davis Schneider. This is a statement. Schneider turned it into an exclamation mark, shoving it 373 feet beyond the left wall.
Ah, okay then. Still, Snell persevered. Is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. up? No matter; Snell’s second pitch was another fastball in the strike zone, lower third and inside. Guerrero took over. Snell’s third pitch was another fastball in the strike zone, up center. Guerrero used powerful hacking techniques to destroy it late at night in Los Angeles. Three pitches, two home runs. Maybe the plan for the first game wasn’t so bad after all.
The good news for the Dodgers is that Snell won two Cy Young Awards with the game plan he employed in his earlier World Series starts. He regrouped with plenty of curveballs, changeups and sliders, targeting mostly the edges of the strike zone to stem the tide. Some of the counts were deep — seven batters had thrown five or more pitches in the first four innings, a huge number for the fast-hitting Jayhawks — but Snell held on. He stuffed his fastball in the back pocket, used it as his fourth pitch, and patiently wore down Toronto, pitch count be damned. His only blemish in six innings (after those two home runs, of course) was Teoscar Hernández’s mistaken triple on Daulton Varsho’s fly ball to lead off the fourth inning; he scored on Ernie Clement’s sacrifice fly.
Snell’s opponents came with similar hopes of returning to early October form. Jesavich rose quickly through the four levels of the minor leagues and got his first real breakout in his World Series debut; he gave up his usually dependable splitter and put in a huge effort on his way to an early exit. His solution was simpler than Snell’s: Go back to throwing the splitter, but this time with better feel. That’s when Yesavage took the lead with a two-run shot to retired Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the first inning.
Then the game began: Yesavich used his usual positive thinking to attack the Dodgers lineup. He briefly personified the true outcome; he struck out five in a row and then hit a home run to Enrique Hernandez in the third inning. Home run or not, Yesavage was absolutely outstanding in Game 5. He struck out Ohtani, Will Smith and Mookie Betts to increase his score to 8 runs. Two other players – Enrique and Alex Carr – held Jesavic to double figures in the first five innings of the game.
Essentially, this is Yesavage in its ideal form. His unorthodox pitches and weird backward-moving slider kept hitters off balance. The fastball explodes off his high release point. His distribution takes the cake out of everything else, as batsmen have to account for it, but often still come away empty-handed. The Dodgers didn’t have an answer. If you’ve ever wondered how a 2024 prospect could sweep across the professional baseball world, from A-ball in April to the Dodgers in the World Series, tonight was an instructive example.
Those two leadoff homers were the only glimmer of hope between the two teams through six innings. Snell’s tightrope act is tiring, but effective. Yesavage always seemed to threaten to leave a cookie in the middle, but with a two-run cushion and no command issues, he was never in trouble. The Dodgers’ lineup is undoubtedly strong, but has struggled of late and has no chance against Yesavage on Wednesday. Their best option is to wait him out, let Snell and the bullpen hold their ground, and then attack the Toronto bullpen.
The plan quickly fell apart, as multiple comeback plans often do. Snell had thrown over 100 pitches, leaving the lefty in the bottom of the Toronto lineup, but Addison Barger singled to left (his third at-bat of the game), Andrés Giménez walked, and suddenly Snell came off the mound, and Guerrero was next. The Dodgers’ bullpen isn’t great at the best of times, having gone 16.1 innings over the past two nights. Edgardo Henriquez got the nod in Game 5, but he didn’t get it. He never got comfortable, whipping the ball to the back of the plate, allowing Bugger to score (he advanced three times on a wild pitch in the inning), and then allowed another runner, Snell, to score on Bo Bichette’s single to right.
Jesavage also ran out of gas in the seventh inning. His fastball was two spaces behind. He keeps overturning his splitter. A long break in the first half of the inning, and of course a career-high workload, seemed to take a toll on him. There’s also the fact that he’s never thrown a seventh as a pro before. But he called a mean splitter to defeat Freddie Freeman, who reached an even number on the night. After an infield single, he induced Tommy Edman to hit a double in the bottom of the inning, hitting a ball to right in an unsuccessful attempt to counter Jesavich’s flyout.
The Blue Jays scored two runs in the seventh inning to make the rest of the game official. They added another in the eighth. The Dodgers managed some base runners but couldn’t even move runners into scoring position, let alone cash in on the runs. They didn’t even get a chance against a sweeper reliever; John Schneider never does anything by halves, and he used a high-leverage part of the bullpen to wrap tonight’s win in bubble wrap.
The bottom line is, Snell doesn’t have the ability to overpower the Blue Jays in this series. He tried in vain to charge directly at them, and he had no luck in outlasting them. With his sharpest abilities, and on a day when his command is absolutely right, I have no doubt he can do it. But the Jayhawks’ lineup is ruthless, and they’re particularly well-suited to attacking left-handed starters who rely on a changeup. It was a miserable game for him and he just couldn’t get over it.
Jesavic, on the other hand, continues his brilliant October. He now has double-digit strikeouts against two of the best offensive teams in baseball, adding this game to his previous game of obliterating the Yankees. Things won’t always be good. Teams will get more video on him and hitters will adjust to his deceptive release point. But who cares about the future? It’s here now, and in it, Trey Yesavage just dominated the most fearsome lineup in the sport on the biggest stage, propelling his team to a championship.
