BOSTON — Max Scherzer was chopping it up in the Toronto Blue Jays dugout last weekend, as per usual, when Trey Yesavage’s between-outings work came up. Coming off a six-walk performance against the New York Yankees and having walked seven two starts prior at Baltimore, the rookie right-hander needed a patch and was talking through some ideas.
“It was kind of funny,” Scherzer recalled. “Trey was on the bench and I was like, ‘Don’t you ever think this is going to end. It never ends. You’re always going to be making adjustments, you’re always going to be tinkering. Here I am in Year 19, I’ve got something I’m comparing from 10 years ago to what I should be doing now. Always keep your mind sharp about what you see and what you’ve got to make adjustments to.’”
Against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday afternoon, with the Blue Jays’ relief corps in dire straits after a seven-man bullpen game the previous night, Yesavage did precisely that, pitching into the eighth inning for the first time. That’s where his gem of an outing was marred by game-tying back-to-back homers from Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Caleb Durbin to open the frame, although Brandon Valenzuela’s two-out double in the top of the ninth off Aroldis Chapman saved the day in a 4-3 victory that completed a three-game sweep.
The Blue Jays (37-38) narrowly missed a chance to extend their 3-1 lead in the top of the eighth inning, as George Springer was thrown out at home trying to score on Yohendrick Pinango’s double, ending that rally. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s solo shot in the first opened the scoring, Andres Gimenez added a sacrifice fly in the second and Nathan Lukes went deep in the seventh to further pad the advantage, but with the team’s top leverage arms down after pitching on consecutive days, more runs could have taken some heat off the staff.
Ernie Clement’s infield single opened the ninth off Chapman and he came around when Valenzuela’s high drive banged off the monster. Mason Fluharty then closed things out in the ninth for his second career save, becoming the fifth member of the bullpen to collect a save this season.
Taking the mound with a renewed emphasis on attacking the strike zone and a slight mechanical tweak in his posture over the rubber, Yesavage did his part over a career-best 7.1 innings, allowing three runs on four hits while striking out six with no walks.
Eliminating the walks was a priority for the 22-year-old, who’d been frustrated by the way he’d been spraying the ball in recent outings.
To that end, pitching coach Pete Walker said they’d emphasized “getting back to attacking the zone, not being fine with his pitches, not trying to hit corners.”
“That’s not his game,” Walker continued. “We were looking at his best games last year, our setup was kind of middle and let his fastball play, his slider play and his split play. I think we’ve gotten a little bit away from that and started trying to be a little finer up and down, down and away. He has to get his focus back to just attacking the zone with his stuff.”
Helping him get there was a physical adjustment to keep him from opening up and “getting on his pitches a little too early.”
“He has an unusual delivery,” explained Walker. “But it’s really just his upper body posture, how he’s coming down the slope. If he tends to lean back and open up too soon, it just makes it a little tougher for him to repeat. When he stays over with his chest over just a little bit more and gets down the slope farther, it just makes everything that much easier with his timing.”