The Blue Jays followed up a brutal Game 3 loss that went 18 innings with a late blowout to even the series up at two all. Now facing the final game in Los Angeles, the scales could tip heavily in their favor if they managed to snag a 3-2 series lead heading back to Toronto. They did just that, and they jumped right out in front to lead the whole way through.
World Series Game 5
Toronto Blue Jays 6, Los Angeles Dodgers 1
(Blue Jays lead Series, 3-2)
Game 5 was a pitching rematch of Game 1, with Blake Snell and Trey Yesavage
toeing the mound. Snell got rocked pretty hard in that outing after looking untouchable in the rest of the postseason, but it took until the sixth inning for things to get away then — this time, the Blue Jay lineup got to him right away. Davis Schneider saw a fastball leaking out over the middle of the plate and pulled it out to left field for a leadoff homer, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. took one strike before Snell tossed him another middle-in fastball that he crushed for another one. It was the first time in World Series history that a game kicked off with back-to-back home runs, adding more fuel to the fire of Toronto’s championship run.
They still had a lot of outs to get before they could lock down a series lead again, but Yesavage was up to the task this time. He capped off a 1-2-3 first inning with a strikeout of Mookie Betts, struck out the side in the second, and then struck out Max Muncy to start the third. Kiké Hernández dinged him right after for a solo home run, continuing his playoff menace status, but Yesavage stayed level and got Alex Call to fly out before striking out Shohei Ohtani.
Daulton Varsho led off the fourth inning and he blooped a ball out to the right field line that Teoscar Hernández could not reach in time, getting past him and going into the corner while Varsho legged out an easy triple. Ernie Clement made the productive out, lifting a fly ball to center to score Varsho and making it 3-1 Blue Jays. The bottom half saw Yesavage strike out the first two batters before getting into his first real jam of the night, plunking a batter and allowing a single to Hernández, but he got out of it thanks to a pop up from Tommy Edman.
The fifth inning was fruitless for both teams, as Guerrero Jr. hit into a double play to end any chance of extending the lead while Yesavage worked another clean inning and picked up two more K’s, the Toronto rookie now approaching gem territory. The sixth saw neither team make any noise, but in the seventh Toronto finally formed a rally. Addison Barger led off with a single, and after a couple of wild pitches and a walk Dave Roberts lifted Snell with runners on the corners and two outs. Edgardo Henriquez was the choice here, and he walked Guerrero which should have loaded the bases, except he did it on a wild pitch of his own that allowed Barger to score. Bo Bichette made it a moot point by singling to right field and scoring the second run of the inning, and it was now a 5-1 game with all the runs on Snell’s record.
Yesavage, meanwhile, capped off his night in style. He struck out Freddie Freeman for the first out of the seventh, his 12th strikeout of the outing, and after Hernández hit a dribbler to third base for an infield single Yesavage got Edman to hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. His final line was magnificent: seven innings, one run, three hits and no walks to go with those aforementioned 12 strikeouts, the most any rookie has ever collected in a World Series start. The Hernández solo shot was his only blemish, but he looked unfazed about the mistake as he went right back to mowing Dodger bats down.
In the eighth, the Jays couldn’t resist adding on an insurance run. Clement led off with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch from Anthony Banda, and then to third on a grounder from Barger. Isiah Kiner-Falefa was next up, and he poked a single out to left to score Clement and give us our final score of 6-1 Blue Jays. Seranthony Domínguez came on in relief of Yesavage for the ninth and worked around a two-out walk, and Jeff Hoffman stranded a leadoff single in the ninth by getting the heart of the Dodger order out with ease.
The Blue Jays fly back to Toronto one win away from winning their first title since 1993, while the Dodgers have their backs to the wall for the first time this postseason. They cruised through the Reds, handled the Phillies, and absolutely shut down the Brewers, but the American League’s best have pushed the defending champs to their limit. The Commissioner’s Trophy could be handed out when these two next take the field on Halloween for Game 6, but the Jays will have to solve Yoshinobu Yamamoto in order to celebrate in October. Kevin Gausman goes for Toronto in that matchup, a rematch of Game 2.
