TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays could have entrusted Game 2 to Hall of Fame-bound Max Scherzer or Chris Basssitt, a pair of accomplished right-handers who have 304 regular-season and eight postseason wins between them.
Instead, they’re giving the ball to 22-year-old Trey Yesavage for his fourth major league appearance as the Blue Jays attempt Sunday to take command of their American League Division Series against the New York Yankees.
The Blue Jays took Game 1 of the best-of-five series with a 10-1 romp on Saturday at home to win a postseason game for the first time since 2016.
Yesavage, a first-round pick (20th overall) in the 2024 MLB Draft who opened this season in Class A, made his major league debut on Sept. 15. In three starts over the final two weeks of the regular season, he fashioned a 1-0 record with a 3.21 ERA and 16 strikeouts to seven walks in 14 innings.
Scherzer and Bassitt, meanwhile, aren’t even on the Blue Jays’ ALDS roster.
“It’s kind of — not kind of cool — it’s really cool just to be out here and playing such a historic franchise,” Yesavage said on Saturday. “I’ll really understand what it’s like when I get out there, but preparing for it, I’m very excited.”
He feels that the Blue Jays managed his season so that he could be available for the assignment on Sunday.
“I feel like I’m at the top of my game right now, which is exactly what this organization wanted,” the right-hander said. “They monitored my innings and pitch count so I’m at my best come October.”
The Yankees will counter with ace left-hander Max Fried (0-0, 0.00 in 6 1/3 innings in these playoffs) as they aim to take the series to New York with a split in Toronto. Fried owns a 4-1 record and a 2.70 ERA in 43 1/3 innings over seven career starts against the Blue Jays. But in his two starts this season in Toronto, he surrendered eight earned runs in 11 1/3 innings as the Blue Jays took both games.
“It’s a really good lineup, they’re going to battle, and they’re not going to give up very many easy outs,” Fried said before the game on Saturday. “They’re going to put the ball in play and make you earn it.”
The Blue Jays are, including Saturday, 9-5 against the Yankees this season, 7-1 at home. Game 1 marked their first postseason victory since Oct. 18, 2016, against Cleveland in the American League Championship Series. They had lost seven straight playoff games prior to Saturday’s triumph.
Toronto started out quickly on Saturday with solo homers by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk in the first and second innings, respectively. Both hit their first career postseason homers.
Guerrero was 3 for 4 with a sacrifice fly. He had a total of three hits in his previous six postseason games.
“(Guerrero) has the ability to do a little bit of everything,” Fried said. “He’s a smart player, and he puts together really good at-bats. If he’s on time, he’s going to hit the ball 115, 120 miles an hour. When you’ve got a little of everything, it makes for going out there and needing to make some fairly good pitches.”
Aaron Judge had two hits for the Yankees in Game 1, but the superstar struck out with the bases loaded and none out in the sixth with New York trailing just 2-0. Judge flailed at a 3-2 splitter from Kevin Gausman that wound up low and outside.
“I wouldn’t say overanxious,” Judge said. “If you saw the whole at-bat, I definitely took some tough pitches. But in the end, I didn’t get the job done. That’s why he’s been in this game for a long time and had a lot of success. That’s his bread and butter.”
Judge led the major leagues in the regular season with a .331 batting average, .688 slugging percentage and .457 on-base percentage and was fourth in home runs (53).
“With Judge coming up, bases loaded, nobody out, that’s not what you want to see,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “But ‘Kev’ made big pitches.”
New York scored once in the inning to cut Toronto’s lead to 2-1. Toronto scored four in both the seventh and eighth innings to turn the game into a rout as New York’s bullpen again was a weakness.
–Larry Millson, Field Level Media
