TORONTO — Trey Yesavage just put up his first triple-double in the big leagues.
Three innings, three escapes with double plays. Yesavage came into his Game 6 start in the American League Championship Series on Sunday without forcing a double play in his big league career, and heâ€d forced just two hitters to ground into double plays over 98 innings in the Minors.
What timing to learn a new trick.
Yesavage struck out seven Mariners over his 5 2/3 innings, holding Seattle to two runs, but this is the first Yesavage start weâ€ll remember for a play he was part of defensively.
Yesavage pulled these double plays off to end the third, fourth and fifth innings, but the double play to end the third might have been the defining moment of the game, perfectly capturing the 2025 Blue Jays in one well-timed flurry.
With the bases loaded and Cal Raleigh at the plate, Yesavage was staring down the barrel of a worst-case scenario. Raleighâ€s home run in Game 5 in Seattle on Sunday kickstarted the Mariners†comeback and the Blue Jays†implosion, and fresh off a 60-homer season, Raleigh could have flipped the game in an instant and ended Torontoâ€s season. Instead, he hit a ground ball to first base, and it all began.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made the scoop moving toward second base and, while still running, fired a strike to Andrés Giménez. This might be Guerreroâ€s most underrated skill, his incredible ability to make throws from first base, especially to kickstart double plays. Giménez, the Blue Jays†big offseason addition and big bet on more elite defense, made the perfect throw back to first, and it was Yesavage whoâ€d scampered over just in time. From the face of the franchise to the defensive specialist to the rookie sensation, what a moment.
According to Elias, since 1940 only three other teams had hit into an inning-ending double play in three straight innings in a postseason game. Yesavage just forced the Mariners to sit at a table with the Padres in the 2005 NL Division Series, the Reds in the 1995 NLCS and the Mets in the 1973 World Series. All of this from a pitcher whoâ€s known for everything but forcing ground balls.
Yesavage had been handling business the old-fashioned way prior to that, striking out the side in the second inning. Unlike last time out against the Mariners in Game 2, he was leaning more heavily on his incredible splitter, which creates such a great sense of deception when it plays off his fastball. Yesavage got away from that the first time he faced Seattle, instead turning to his slider, but he was back to the best version of himself in the early innings.
Yesavage is already one of the best stories of the season for the Blue Jays, and performances like these are putting him in a small group of postseason stars in this organizationâ€s history. If weâ€re still watching highlights of this run years from now, weâ€ll be seeing his first double play in the big leagues over and over again.
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