How Trey Yesavage Made History Against the Yankees

The Yankees had no answer for what Yesavage was bringing. He became the first pitcher in postseason history to allow zero hits, strike out nine or more batters, and walk one batter or fewer. All that for a 22-year-old who started the season in Single-A Dunedin.

But Yesavage’s outing was more than just 5.1 innings of impressive pitching. It was, for several reasons, one of the most impressive performances we’ve ever seen from such a young pitcher in postseason play.

In Command

Yesavage struggled with walks through a large chunk of his season in the minors. With a 10.5% walk rate in the minors and an 11.3% rate in his three regular season MLB starts, Yesavage had a problem with free passes that did not come out last Sunday.

Game 2 of the ALDS was only the second time this year he pitched beyond the fifth inning without allowing a walk. The other outing came on May 1, when he was still in Single-A.

Despite not allowing a walk, Yesavage was not pounding the strike zone. In fact, he was avoiding it quite often. Only 38.5% of pitches from Yesavage were in the zone, the second-lowest rate among the 17 games he pitched in with Statcast tracking this season. That was also the third-lowest in-zone rate this postseason for any pitcher with at least 50 pitches thrown in a game.

You might presume the righty from East Carolina University was getting a lot of chase – and you would be right. The Yankees swung at 18 of the 48 pitches Yesavage threw out of the zone, a 37.5% rate.

In two-strike counts, New York chased 10 out of 20 times. They swung at half of the pitches Yesavage threw out of the zone. Even better, the Yankees whiffed on 13 of their 18 swings out of the zone, a 72.2% whiff rate.

Enter the Yesavage splitter, the biggest reason for Sunday’s success. Yesavage’s 37.2% usage of the pitch on Sunday was the third-highest mark from his 17 tracked games this year, and his most with the big league club. With two strikes, its usage rose to 50%.

Overall, Yesavage’s splitter induced 11 whiffs on 16 swings along with eight called strikes. It logged a 65.5% called strike + whiff rate (CSW%), the highest ever on record against a splitter in a game with at least 25 splitters thrown.

While the Yankees struggled to hit Yesavage’s splitter, they also displayed a costly patience against his four-seam fastball. Yesavage threw 35 four-seamers, 14 of which were in the strike zone. Of those 14, the Yankees only swung at five, gifting the Blue Jays starter nine called strikes to set up his wipeout sinker.

In fact, only 41.9% of the Yankees’ swings against Yesavage came against pitches in the zone. That was the sixth-lowest rate among the 4,975 pitchers to throw at least 25 pitches in the strike zone in any game this season, regular or post.

To put it simply, the Yankees couldn’t hit Yesavage because they swung too often at balls and didn’t swing enough at strikes. But in some ways, the matchup between Yesavage and New York’s lineup was doomed from the start.

A Favorable Lineup

In his first professional season, Yesavage has had reverse splits between the minor and major leagues. Across his 98 minor league innings at four different levels, left-handed batters slashed .136/.238/.216/.454 against him in 232 plate appearances.

This trend continued into the big leagues, as lefties hit .161, slugged .194 and posted a .451 OPS against Yesavage in his three regular season starts. Against their better interests, the Yankees played directly into this trend.

Six of the nine hitters in New York’s lineup in Game 2 were left-handed. Those hitters combined to go 0-for-12 against the rookie with seven strikeouts. 58.3% of left-handed hitters who stepped up against Yesavage were sat down by way of the K. The righties did not fare much better, but the rookie got to face a lineup that played to his advantages, and it showed.

Yesavage’s Dominance: By the Numbers

The Yankees swung at 31 of Yesavage’s 78 pitches and whiffed on 18 of them. His 58.1% whiff rate tops the list of 1,272 pitchers in the pitch tracking era to throw at least 50 pitches in any postseason game. His 44.9% CSW% is the second highest on the same list , trailing only Adam Wainwright in Game 2 of the 2019 NLCS.

Yesavage’s splitter posted a 7.53 RV/100 throughout the game. Its utter humiliation of Yankee hitters that day gave it the 49th highest RV/100 on a splitter among the 1,579 games in which a pitcher threw at least 25 of them since 2008. That’s also the second-highest RV/100 for a splitter in a postseason game in that span.

At 22 years and 69 days old for ALDS Game 2, Yesavage became the second youngest pitcher to strike out 11 batters in a postseason game. Only then 21-year-old John Candelaria in Game 3 of the 1975 NLCS did it at a younger age.

Yesavage will take the ball in today’s Game 2 of the ALCS against the Mariners. It will be his first time toeing the slab since his historic game against the Yankees, as the Blue Jays look to even the ALCS before heading west to Seattle.