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Trey Yesavage wasn’t supposed to look this calm. Not in front of 44,000 fans. Not against the New York Yankees in October. Not three weeks after making his major league debut. But on a cool night in Toronto, the 22-year-old rookie didn’t just pitch—he took command of the moment.
“This has got to be cloud nine,” Yesavage said after walking off the mound to a standing ovation and a deafening chant of his name. He meant it. He’d just shut down baseball’s highest-scoring lineup, leaving the Yankees hitless through 5⅔ innings and helping the Blue Jays grab a commanding 2-0 lead in the ALDS.
The moment his manager John Schneider stepped out to pull him, the Rogers Centre crowd booed. Then the boos turned to cheers—thunderous ones. Schneider knew the plan. The kid was done at 78 pitches, no matter how dominant he looked. And dominant doesn’t begin to cover it.
Yesavage struck out 11 Yankees, a franchise postseason record, and became only the second pitcher in MLB playoff history to post 10 strikeouts without allowing a hit. Eight of those strikeouts came with his splitter, a pitch that seems to vanish like a dropped elevator. The Yankees had no answer.
“Built for this,” he’d said before the series began. Sunday night, he backed it up pitch by pitch.
From Low-A to the spotlight
It’s hard to grasp how fast Yesavage’s rise has been. Drafted just last June out of East Carolina, he started the season pitching in front of 300 fans in Low-A Dunedin. Six months later, he was facing Aaron Judge and Juan Soto in October under the lights.
That’s not supposed to happen. But Yesavage doesn’t seem interested in “supposed to.” His fastball explodes at the top of the zone, his splitter drops off the table, and his slider keeps hitters honest. For the Yankees, it was like trying to solve three different puzzles at once.
The kid never flinched. His only walk came to Judge in the first inning. His only other baserunner reached on an error. He kept attacking, kept believing in his stuff. When he finally left, his teammates mobbed him in the dugout. Fans wouldn’t sit down until he came back out for a curtain call.
MORE: 21-year old slugger makes MLB postseason history in Game 1 of NLDS
A glimpse of the future
Every October creates a new star. This one might belong to Trey Yesavage. Toronto’s rotation already had names like Kevin Gausman and Max Scherzer. But now, suddenly, the Jays have something else, a young ace who doesn’t seem to know fear.
If Game 2 was a sign of what’s coming, Toronto’s future is as bright as that scoreboard that flashed his name all night. For now, though, the rookie is just soaking it in.
“This has got to be cloud nine,” he said again in the clubhouse, still grinning, still trying to believe it all happened.
For one night in Toronto, it sure was.
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