LOS ANGELES -- A record-setting performance by rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage in Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night has the Toronto Blue Jays on the cusp of their first championship since 1993.
Yesavage struck out 12 batters over seven innings while giving up only three hits without issuing a walk, helping Toronto to a 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Blue Jays lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 with Game 6 scheduled for Friday in Toronto.
It was a masterful start for Yesavage, and it came in his first career postseason start on the road.
"It's a crazy world," Yesavage, 23, said afterward. "Crazy world. Hollywood couldn't have made it this good. So just being a part of this, I'm just very blessed."
Yesavage set the rookie mark for strikeouts in a World Series game, surpassing Don Newcombe's 11, set in 1949. It was his second postseason game this month with at least 11 strikeouts, making him the first rookie to accomplish the feat in multiple postseason games; Yesavage struck out 11 against the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the American League Division Series.
"I was shocked when he did it to the Yankees," second baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa said with a smile. "Less shocked this time around."
Yesavage combined a lively fastball with a devastating split finger and slider, inducing 23 swings and misses, the most by any pitcher in a World Series game in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008).
He said the key to his performance Wednesday was "getting in the zone early, being in my count, just throwing whatever I wanted when I was in two strikes."
"Being able to execute my plan throughout all seven innings was massive for that," he said.
Yesavage had a rougher outing against the Dodgers in Game 1, when he gave up four hits and three walks over four innings. He was a different pitcher Wednesday.
"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."
Outfielder Enrique Hernandez added: "His slider was really good tonight. I think his slider was his difference-maker. It was harder and tighter than it was in Toronto. We weren't really able to pick it up and his split is pretty good."
"Pretty good" might be an understatement: Batters are 3-for-34 with 22 strikeouts in at-bats ending on his splitter this postseason.
It didn't take long for Yesavage to lock in Wednesday. He struck out five consecutive batters between the first and third innings before Hernandez homered, Yesavage's only blemish. He struck out both Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman twice and got Shohei Ohtani once on a nasty splitter to end the third.
"Historic stuff," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. "When you talk about that stage and his numbers, getting ahead of a lot of hitters, tons of swing-and-miss. It's one thing to be in the zone, and it's another thing to be in the zone and get some swing-and-miss.
"Kind of blown away at what he did."
It didn't hurt that Yesavage took the mound with a 2-0 lead after the Blue Jays' first two hitters ambushed Dodgers starter Blake Snell. Leadoff man Davis Schneider hit the first pitch he saw for a home run to left, and then two pitches later, Vladimir Guerrero Jr did the same.
"Last time I only got a few fastballs, so I was kind of sitting fastball," Schneider said. "Especially being a leadoff guy, you're going to at least get one, and I thought he was going to throw a changeup that first one, but I saw a fastball and hit it out."
After seeing Schneider's blast, Guerrero said his plan at the plate was simple: "The plan was to win," he said through the team interpreter.
The Blue Jays extended a 2-1 lead with one run in the fourth, two in the seventh and one in the eighth. It was eerily similar to Game 4, when they eliminated an early deficit and pulled away for a 6-2 win. But Wednesday was the first time all series the Dodgers never had a lead in a game.
"That was a huge spark," third baseman Ernie Clement said of the first-inning homers. "You couldn't ask for a better start."
The Jays are hoping for a similar finish to the series. They will have two chances to win one, both at raucous Rogers Centre -- that's if they even need a Game 7. They've regained momentum after dropping a heartbreaking, 18-inning affair in Game 3 on Monday. Thanks to an historic pitching performance in Game 5, they're one win away from popping champagne again.
Said teammate Max Scherzer of Yesavage: "When he's on, he can make anyone in the game look stupid."