Jays Watch: Blue Jays have 2 chances at home to win it all

We break down the Toronto Blue Jays' 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series.

Yesavage saves best for last

Trey Yesavage keeps redefining what we think is possible, and the Blue Jays aren't one win away from a World Series title without him.

Making just the eighth start of his major-league career, the 22-year-old authored one of the most impressive performances in the franchise's history. Pitching at Dodger Stadium, and on the road for the first time this playoffs, Yesavage struck out an MLB-rookie record 12 batters while allowing only one run off three hits over seven innings.

Yesavage is the first pitcher in MLB history to record 12 strikeouts and zero walks in a World Series game, while the 23 whiffs generated are the most by a pitcher during the Fall Classic since pitch tracking became available in 2008, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.

The Dodgers appeared confident heading into Game 5 having already faced Yesavage in Game 1. Dave Roberts said he believed his team had a better game plan going in after seeing the unique delivery days earlier.

So much for that.

Yesavage was clearly up for the challenge and pitched completely differently the second time around, almost abandoning his fastball Wednesday. He also did a much better job at commanding the zone and throwing strikes.

The Blue Jays did well to hand Yesavage an early 2-0 lead before he took the mound, and he continued to show incredible poise by retiring the first seven Dodgers hitters. Even after surrendering a solo home run to Enrique Hernández, Yesavage polished off the next four batters and only allowed three baserunners over the following 4 2/3 innings, finishing his night after seven with at least one strikeout of every Dodger.

The biggest moment came in the fourth. With two on and two out, Alejandro Kirk called a mound visit, and Yesavage proceeded to get Tommy Edman to pop-up to end the inning. The game could've gone another way entirely if Kirk didn't settle his pitcher down there.

Where'd the Dodgers offense go?

The Dodgers finished second in runs, homers, and OPS during the regular season, but the lineup's been a shell of itself through five games of the World Series.

Los Angeles has scored just four runs and managed 16 hits over its last 29 innings. The 18-inning marathon seems to have sucked all the life out of the team.

Roberts attempted to rearrange the deck chairs moving into Game 5, but putting Will Smith second in the lineup and demoting Mookie Betts to third did almost nothing. The same can be said for swapping Andy Pages with Alex Call.

Betts is now 3-for-23 (.130) in the World Series without an RBI. He said following the loss that he's been "terrible."

But it's not just him.

Aside from Shohei Ohtani's incredible Game 3 in which he went 4-for-4 with five walks, he's 2-for-15 with four strikeouts and two walks in the other four games. He's also gone seven straight at-bats without a hit.

Despite the Dodgers outhomering the Blue Jays 8-7 in the series, seven of those have been solo shots. Los Angeles isn't getting enough traffic on base for those big swings to really do damage on the scoreboard.

Luckily, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto going in Game 6, the Dodgers may not need to score a lot to even the series.

L.A.'s defense is haunting them too

With Los Angeles struggling to score runs, its defense really can't afford the amount of miscues committed in Game 5.

After the Dodgers grabbed some momentum by making it 2-1 in the third inning, Teoscar Hernández's misplay that turned a Daulton Varsho single into a triple to lead off the fourth was crushing. Varsho immediately scored the following at-bat on an Ernie Clement sac fly.

Toronto put the game to bed in the seventh, scoring a pair of runs with just two hits. Addison Barger singled and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. A grounder to the right side of the infield allowed him to advance to third base, and Barger came around to score on another wild pitch. L.A. became the first team ever to throw three wild pitches during the same inning in the World Series. To add insult to injury, the Dodgers threw another wild pitch in the eighth that eventually led to the sixth run.

If you give the Blue Jays extra outs and 90 feet, they'll make you pay. It's a big part of why they're one game away from winning a championship.

"Giving up bases and not converting outs when you have an opportunity to convert outs, that came back to bite us tonight," Roberts said.

Los Angeles beat the New York Yankees in last year's World Series by taking advantage of mistakes, but the tables have turned this October, and the Dodgers' offense simply isn't good enough right now to bail them out.

Jays ambush Snell

Despite what his final line might say, Blake Snell pitched well and kept the Dodgers in the game for 6 2/3 innings. But he was done in early, thanks to the Blue Jays' aggressiveness.

Snell's first three pitches were four-seam fastballs, and Toronto was ready for them. Davis Schneider ripped the first pitch of the game - a 97-mph fastball - into the left-field pavilion. Two pitches later, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. pounced on another fastball for a solo homer that held up as the game-winning run.

"You might only get one fastball to hit, and Snell likes his changeup," Schneider told MLB Network's Lauren Shehadi. "I just didn't want to get to that changeup early on, so I was sitting fastball and didn't miss it."

From there, Snell got the message, abandoning the fastball for almost two full innings.

The Blue Jays' plan was clearly to ambush Snell, and it worked. Four of their six hits against him came during the first time through the order, when each of Toronto's nine hitters acted quickly to try and put the ball in play.

That kind of aggressive approach is a hallmark of Blue Jays baseball, and it speaks to why it's been so difficult for the Dodgers to contain. Toronto puts the ball in play consistently, makes contact, and wears down opposing pitchers.

Even if the Blue Jays strike out, they'll often do so after fouling off multiple pitches and working the count deep. Schneider and Kirk both had six-pitch strikeouts in the third with multiple foul balls that drove Snell's pitch count up. Barger worked a six-pitch walk in the fourth, and Schneider did the same in the fifth. The final four batters Snell faced in Game 5 each saw five or more pitches, ultimately driving the left-hander out of the game.

The Blue Jays used the same strategy to knock off the Yankees and Seattle Mariners. Now, it has them on the cusp of a title with Dodgers pitchers kicking dirt in frustration.

Heading into this series, one of the most intriguing subplots was seeing how the powerful Dodgers' pitching staff would adjust to the contact-heavy Blue Jays' offense, and vice-versa. Clearly, Toronto's done a better job of that through the first five games. Los Angeles only has 54 outs left to flip the switch.