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| hey good job Trey |
You would think that back-to-back home runs to open a World Series game for the first time ever—Davis Schneider's on the game's very first pitch, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s on its third—would be the most remarkable aspect of the contest in which that actually somehow occurred. And it did rule a lot; please do not mistake me. But both of those mighty wallops (Schneider's was sufficiently mighty, while Vladdy's felt almost excessively so [it was the hardest swing measured in like forever {save a little wallop for the rest of the guys, please, Vladdy}]) went down before Trey Yesavage had even taken the mound. Once he did, it didn't take all that long to see that something probably even more significant (in the baseball sense) was taking shape. Before Sandy Koufax himself (he turns ninety in two months! and he stayed for all eighteen innings the other night! what!), Trey Yesavage struck out twelve, walked none (he did hit Freddy Freeman's foot, bouncing one in on an 0-2 count), and allowed just three hits (a home run to postseason stalwart Kiké Hernandez, and two dribbling infield singles for the usually-clubbing Téo) in his seven totally riveting innings. As the evening played out, there would be a new "first rookie pitcher to" or "first World Series game in which" every few batters, it seemed, but the one that stands out most to me, I think, is that this was only the third time a pitcher had struck out the complete starting lineup of an opposing team—like all of their guys, at least once—in a World Series game, the other two having been Bob Gibson in 1968 (arguably the greatest season by any pitcher ever, though he took the loss in Game Seven of the World Series that year after striking out seventeen in Game One and ten in Game Three [baseball, man; what can you even say]) and Randy Johnson in 2001 (some say 2001 Randy Johnson is striking out Yankees to this very day).
Aside from these two historically wild occurrences—the game-opening dingers from Davis Schneider and Vladdy; Yesavage repeatedly slicing up a lineup with three definite Hall-of-Famers (poor Mookie, by the way) in full-on Bob Gibson/Randy Johnson mode—it was Blue Jays baseball the rest of the way: a great catch from Addison Barger on a screaming Ohtani liner that, given its apparent trajectory and exit velocity, should be a base hit roughly infinity percent of the time (I have not looked into the specifics); an Ernie Clement sacrifice fly to plate Daulton Varsho's triple (a gift from the irrepressible Téo and his enigmatic routes, that triple); and a few more late runs eked out on good baserunning, Dodger miscues, and a Bo Bichette liner ripped to the wall (which, in Bo's current state, was but a single). (On Bo, briefly: his .313/.389/.313 [average/OBP/SLG] in the World Series feels nearly miraculous after seven weeks away and a knee that is obviously still a huge problem, and you can see that his slugging mark has taken a huge hit not because he isn't hitting the ball hard so as that he literally cannot run to second base even when he rips it to the wall; this is all just so wild.) After Yesavage got the ground ball he needed to end the seventh (much to Max Scherzer's delight/sunflower-spitting rage), Seranthony Dominguez and Jeff Hoffman took it the rest of the way.
And so here we are, back in Toronto for Game Six, and a chance to end the World Series—indeed, to win it, many are saying—this very night. George Springer, who seemed to have hurt himself significantly with a swing roughly halfway through the eighteen-inning Game Three, looked like he was going to possibly pinch run for Bo late in Game Five, should Bo have reached in that instance, and he's thought to be ready (in the loose sense of "playable," not in the sense of "in good health") for Game Six. Maybe he's got enough left for one more big swing this season? Just the one? Maybe? If Springer's back in at DH, that'll put Bo at second, which has gone pleasingly well so far, though one still hopes too many plays do not come his way (or rather, that if they do come his way, they come very much his way, rather than all that many steps to the left of his way, or, worse still, to the right of it). We definitely need their bats, both of them, as it's Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the hill for the Dodgers, about whom it turns out we were extremely correct to worry. Surely he doesn't have a third consecutive complete game in him, right? The Dodgers' bullpen really has been a problem for them, outside of its extraordinary showing in Game Three, and Dave Roberts will be in no rush to get Yamamoto out of there, you wouldn't think, unless we can really hang some runs on him early. Will Tyler Glasnow, lined up for Game Seven, be available tonight if the Dodgers need him? What about Blake Snell, having thrown so many pitches just two days ago? One assumes Ohtani could pitch in relief, and if it was against anybody but the Blue Jays, I am sure I would thrill to the sight of him jogging out from the dugout to the bullpen late in the game to warm up real quick. Instead, given our present circumstance, the thought fills me with a dread, a little. For our part, it's Kevin Gausman, whose strong Game Two performance was understandably overshadowed by Yamamoto's, but he really had the splitter going that night, and he was locating the fastball just as he needs to in order to get those chases on the splitter. So maybe?
I will admit that, even though on the whole I have remained calmer than I would have anticipated throughout this extraordinarily wonderful October run, I am pretty stirred up about tonight! I would really, really prefer for this not to go to a Game Seven, even though Max Scherzer has been throwing so well that it is not that hard to imagine Saturday night's game, should it be played, as an opportunity for an all-time finish to a clear-cut Hall-of-Fame career, and a fitting end to a great World Series. We all love Max Scherzer, and what baseball fan doesn't love a Game Seven, but right now I cannot properly express to you how little I would like my Saturday night to have anything to do with either, given the opportunity that has been set before us tonight. The Blue Jays have done nothing this series to suggest that they can't do this—they have shown themselves to be every bit as good as this Dodgers team—but nearly anything can happen in a single baseball game, which is usually a thought that presents itself as promise, but less so in situations like this? Once it gets going, of course, for better or worse, it'll just be a baseball game, but in these last hours before it (fate hovered near, certain but unknowable), there's a real need for a baseball game, or something like it, to take our minds off this baseball game.
KS
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