Dodgers’ Offense Searching for Answers After a Rookie Put Them on the Ropes

LOS ANGELES – At the end of the seventh inning Wednesday night, the Dodger Stadium videoboard implored a crowd of 52,175 fans to get loud. The request was futile. An offense that has looked asleep since Monday’s late-night marathon, a bullpen that evokes dread and a Blue Jays rookie rising to heights previously unseen had already ripped out their hearts and crushed their souls. 

And now, after 22-year-old Trey Yesavage shut down the Dodgers’ star-laden lineup with a World Series rookie record 12 strikeouts over seven innings of a 6-1 win in Game 5, the reigning champions suddenly head back to Toronto on the brink of elimination. 

Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers struggled at the plate in the last two games. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“It’s time for us, for the offense, to show up,” said Kiké Hernández. 

That has become an all-too-common refrain this postseason for a lineup teeming with All-Stars and MVPs. 

The Dodgers entered Game 5 hitting .214 as a team in the World Series. They were coming off a two-run effort and had averaged fewer than four runs per game since the start of the division series. 

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts resisted the temptation to move Mookie Betts down in the order during the regular season, even at the lowest points of his worst offensive year as a big leaguer. But the team’s funk had gotten to the point that Roberts and the Dodgers decided it was time to shuffle things up.

Blue Jays 1 WIN AWAY 🚨 Yesavage’s Historic WORLD SERIES Game 5 😤 Dodgers’ Slump, A-Rod, Papi & Jeter

“In the postseason,” Roberts said, “you’ve got to be a little bit more reactive.”

So he moved Will Smith up to the No. 2 spot in the lineup in Game 5, bumping Betts — who’s hitting .132 since the start of the championship series — and Freddie Freeman down, flipping Tommy Edman and Max Muncy in the order and removing the struggling Andy Pages in favor of Alex Call. 

It did not make a difference. 

The Dodgers, who have now scored just four runs over their last 29 innings, responded with one run on four hits and were left still searching for answers. They were unable to solve a pitcher in Yesavage who was playing at East Carolina University just a year ago and entered the postseason with three career regular-season starts to his name. 

Shohei Ohtani, Betts and Freeman combined to go hitless on the night. 

“I don’t want to speak on anybody else, but for myself, I’ve just been terrible,” Betts said. “I wish it were from lack of effort, but it’s not. I mean, that’s all I can say.” 

Mookie Betts and the Dodgers now have to win two games in Toronto. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Before the season began, Max Fried signed a $218 million deal with the Yankees, while Blake Snell inked a $182 million contract with the Dodgers. They were among the two most highly-coveted options on the market. 

Yesavage, a 2024 first-round pick who was not even in Toronto’s big-league camp during spring training, has outdueled both of those aces in the pressure cooker of MLB’s postseason.

In Game 2 of the ALDS, in Yesavage’s first ever playoff game and just his fourth ever big-league appearance, he outmatched Fried while striking out 11 batters in 5.1 scoreless, hitless innings against the Yankees. 

In Game 6 of the ALCS, an elimination game for the Blue Jays, Yesavage outlasted Mariners standout Logan Gilbert while surrendering just two runs in 5.2 innings to keep Toronto’s season alive. 

And in two World Series matchups against Snell, Yesavage outshined the two-time Cy Young Award winner both times. 

“This playoff paycheck is going to be nice whenever it hits,” said Yesavage, who was still pitching in Single-A as recently as June. 

In Game 5 against the Dodgers, Yesavage got a combined 42 whiffs and called strikes. At one point, he struck out five straight batters. Later in the night, he became the first pitcher since Sandy Koufax in 1963 to strike out at least 10 over the first five innings of a World Series game. 

“It was just a complete 180 from Game 1,” Freeman said. “His command was pinpoint tonight.”

It didn’t hurt that Yesavage was pitching with a 2-0 lead two batters into the game. 

The Blue Jays have played just one more game than the Dodgers this postseason, yet they’ve scored 36 more runs. They’re a relentless offensive force due in large part to their ability to string together hits and put the ball in play, but they’re not a one-dimensional attack; they’ve also hit more homers than any team this postseason, including six more than the Dodgers. 

And in Game 5, that power was on display from the start. 

Leadoff hitter Davis Schneider was sitting on a first-pitch fastball and got one from Snell, homering on the first pitch of the night. Two pitches later, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. continued his extraordinary October when he pulled another inside fastball for his franchise-record eighth home run of the postseason. 

Three pitches, two homers, one stunned stadium. 

“You clearly see those guys finding ways to get hits, move the baseball forward,” Roberts said, “and we’re not doing a good job of it.”

Snell gave the Dodgers a chance to claw back, regrouping after those two early homers to allow just one more run over his next five innings. 

The offense, however, offered little resistance to Yesavage’s attack. 

“Hitting creates energy,” Hernández said, “and we weren’t getting hits.” 

Kiké Hernández’s solo home run was all the offense the Dodgers mustered. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Hernández was responsible for the only run the Dodgers mustered on the night. Their plan was to get Yesavage up in the zone, and when Hernández finally got an elevated fastball in the third inning, he didn’t miss, blasting a 407-foot home run that served only as a brief jolt. 

“I think obviously the lane with him is up,” Hernández told me, “but his release is really high and the slider just below the zone, out of the hand it looks like a pitch up in the zone, and it just dies. His slider was a lot better, in my opinion tonight, than it was in Toronto, and it seemed like we weren’t really able to adjust to it.” 

As Freeman alluded to, the Dodgers faced a different version of Yesavage than the one they saw in Game 1, when the rookie surrendered just two runs over four innings despite a lack of command with his secondary offerings.

In Game 5, Yesavage’s slider and splitter were untouchable. The two pitches alone accounted for 21 swings and misses and finished off each of his 12 strikeouts. 

“Obviously, the approach is to try to get him up, but he didn’t hardly throw anything up in the zone,” said Max Muncy. “He just kept the ball down. He was throwing strikes. It’s tough to battle against that.” 

The Dodgers’ objective got even tougher in the seventh. 

At the time, the game was still within reach. Snell was at 110 pitches with one out in the inning when he walked the nine-hole hitter to put two runners on with Schneider due up for the fourth time. Roberts, hesitant to go to his unreliable bullpen, left Snell in. The move was prudent, as Snell battled for the strikeout. 

Unfortunately for Roberts, Snell’s pitch count was at 116. 

“It’s hard because you can only push a starter so much,” Roberts said. “I thought Blake emptied the tank.” 

ROOKIE MAKES WORLD SERIES HISTORY😤 Trey Yesavage on 12 strikeout performance vs. Dodgers in Game 5

So in came Edgardo Henriquez, who immediately let both inherited runners score and each of the three batters he faced to reach. Suddenly, the Dodgers’ deficit was four, with Yesavage still on the mound. 

The 22-year-old finished his seventh and final frame with an inning-ending double play, then retreated to the dugout where a bear hug awaited from Guerrero. 

“It seems like at-bats are snowballing on us right now,” Hernández said. “We’re getting pitches to hit, we’re missing them, and we’re expanding the zone with two strikes. I think the best thing that can happen for us is a day off. Get a day to regroup and figure it out. As a group, it’s time for us to show our character and put up a fight and see what happens.”

Last year’s Dodgers demonstrated that resolve in the 2024 NLDS, when they won two elimination games in San Diego to move on and ultimately capture a World Series championship. 

Now, as the series shifts back to Toronto, the Dodgers will have to do that again on the road if they want to defend their title and become the first team to win back-to-back championships in 25 years. 

“I think there’s more in there,” Roberts said. “I know there’s more in there.”

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If that’s not motivation enough, perhaps the scene after their Game 5 loss will serve as more. 

In the aftermath of defeat, Clayton Kershaw changed into a black sweatsuit, departed the home clubhouse, walked down the hallway, embraced a large contingent of family and friends, then sauntered back out to the Dodger Stadium field, soaking up the opportunity one last time. 

It was Kershaw’s final home game in his 18-year career. 

The Dodgers need two straight wins to send him out with one final ring. 

“We’ve been in this situation before, against the Padres,” Freeman said. “And we can do it again.” 

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.