Blue Jays best Dodgers, head home with 3-2 World Series lead - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Trey Yesavage set a World Series rookie record with 12 strikeouts, and the Blue Jays opened Game 5 with back-to-back homers in a 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night that moved Toronto within one win of its first championship since 1993.

Davis Schneider and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homered on Blake Snell's first and third pitches, the first consecutive homers ever to start a World Series game.

Yesavage, a precocious 22-year-old right-hander who started his season in April pitching before 327 fans in Single-A, took over from there.

With a sinking splitter, a spinning slider and an overpowering fastball that quieted L.A.'s bats and a crowd of 52,175, he broke the prior rookie record of 11 strikeouts set by Don Newcombe for the Dodgers in a 1-0 loss to the New York Yankees in the 1949 Series opener. Getting six K's each with his splitter and slider, Yesavage became the first Series pitcher with 12 strikeouts and no walks.

«I'm kind of blown away by what he did,» Toronto manager John Schneider said.

After losing a Game 3 heartbreaker in 18 innings Monday night, the resilient Blue Jays bounced right back with two comfortable wins.

Toronto leads 3-2 in the best-of-seven matchup and can dethrone the defending champions back home when the Series resumes Friday night at Rogers Centre. No team has won consecutive titles since the Yankees took three in a row from 1998 to 2000.

«We've got to kind of wipe the slate clean and find a way to win Game 6 and pick up the pieces and see where we're at,» Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Yesavage allowed three hits over seven innings and his only run when Enrique Hernandez homered on a high fastball to trim the Dodgers' deficit to 2-1 in the third.

Serantho