Trey Yesavage Rescues Blue Jays with Victory in Third Career Postseason Start
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The American League Championship Series has been full of ups and downs for both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners struck first and stole a pair of wins in Toronto to take a 2-0 lead going back to Seattle. The Jays didn't look like they even showed up in the first two outings, but they were a different team when the ballclub stepped off the plane in Seattle.
The ALCS returned to Toronto with Seattle up 3-2 and with a trip to the World Series on the line. So it was time for Trey Yesavage to take the mound for the Jays.
The game two loss was on the arm of the 22-year-old rising star. He has had a lot on his shoulders since his Major League debut which was just over a month ago and included the pressure of an AL East title race, followed by a pair of playoff starts as he entered Game 6 with the season on the line.
Pivotal Moments in Trey Yesavage's Game Six Start
Yesavage started the game off incredibly strong. He only threw nine pitches in the first inning and found his first strikeout of the game against potential AL MVP Cal Raleigh. By the end of the following set of at-bats for the Mariners, they had yet to get a hit let alone score a run.
He struck out Raleigh, Josh Naylor, Randy Arozarena, and Eugenio Suárez by the end of the second inning. The Mariners started to find a groove however in the third inning with a pair of walks, a double by Raleigh, and a single. But the Jays' defense kept them scoreless, thanks to an inning-ending double play.
The bases were loaded again by the Mariners in the fourth after a pair of singles and a walk with only one out, but another inning-ending double play by the Jays defense kept the Mariners off of the board. It wasn't until the sixth inning that Seattle finally crossed home plate.
That inning started with another Raleigh strikeout by Yesavage and then a ground out from Jorge Polanco. With only one out left to go, Naylor hit a homer on the first pitch of his at-bat- an 81 MPH splitter.
That homer was followed by a single from Arozarena and with that, his time on the mound was done. Yesavage finished the game with seven strikeouts, six hits, a pair of earned runs, and three walks. It was a respectable performance with the American League pennant on the line.
After 5.2 innings, Yesavage helped the Jays force a Game 7 with a 6-2 win. A year ago he hadn't thrown a pitch in professional baseball and now if the Jays win this series his next start will be in the World Series.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.