Yesavage’s rebound helps Blue Jays sweep Red Sox 4-3

Yesavage helps – Trey Yesavage pitched into the eighth inning as the Toronto Blue Jays finished a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox with a 4-3 win on Thursday. After his outing shifted the bullpen’s workload following a seven-man effort the night before, Isiah Kiner-Falef

BOSTON — The night before, Toronto burned through its relief bullpen for seven men. So when Trey Yesavage took the mound against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday afternoon, it wasn’t just another start on the calendar—it was a chance to buy the bullpen some air.

He did more than survive. Yesavage pitched into the eighth inning for the first time. and his longest stretch with the Blue Jays paid off when the game tightened. After a game-tying moment arrived in the eighth. Yesavage still gave Toronto the foundation it needed. and the Blue Jays closed it out in the ninth for a 4-3 victory that completed a three-game sweep.

The ninth swung on Brandon Valenzuela. With Toronto trailing after Boston’s sequence in the eighth—Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Caleb Durbin opening the frame with back-to-back homers—Valenzuela doubled with two outs in the top of the ninth. Ernie Clement had opened the inning with an infield single. and from there the pressure stayed on Aroldis Chapman until the Blue Jays found the decisive run.

Mason Fluharty then came in to close the ninth for his second career save, becoming the fifth member of the bullpen to collect a save this season.

Toronto’s offense had provided an early lift. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. opened the scoring in the first inning with a solo homer that ended a 24-game home-run drought. Andres Gimenez added a sacrifice fly in the second, and Nathan Lukes went deep in the seventh to pad the advantage.

There was also a moment in the eighth when the Blue Jays almost extended their 3-1 lead. George Springer was thrown out at home while trying to score on Yohendrick Pinango’s double, ending the rally.

Still, the sweep mattered. At 37-38, the Blue Jays are back within a game of .500 as they head to Chicago for a three-game set against the Cubs (39-36). Vladimir Guerrero Jr. said the message in the clubhouse stayed consistent.

“We played hard,” Guerrero Jr. said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “The mindset that we have as a team, that’s what we all talk about in the clubhouse, trying to win every game and going out there and competing. And I’m very happy we swept the Red Sox.”

Yesavage’s appearance carried its own story—part rhythm, part adjustment. Coming off a six-walk performance against the New York Yankees and after walking seven in two starts prior at Baltimore, the 22-year-old right-hander needed a fix between outings.

Max Scherzer had seen the work. He described last weekend’s conversation in the Toronto dugout while Trey Yesavage sat on the bench.

“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 Boston, those adjustments showed up in the numbers. Yesavage logged a career-best 7.1 innings, allowing three runs on four hits while striking out six and issuing no walks. He did acknowledge the cost of two pitches—two fastballs he felt were a tick too close to the plate—that came back to hurt him in the eighth.

“It helped,” Brandon Valenzuela said later about the final moments, but the breakthrough was really about staying alive with the ball that nearly betrayed him. Valenzuela described a foul popper that appeared it might cost him when the wind carried it—then kept the play in play.

“I thought that was going foul back into the fans,” Valenzuela said. “When I turned and I saw Wong following the ball, I was surprised and I saw the ball drop. I was like, OK, I guess the wind is blowing. It helped.”

Helping Yesavage on the mound. Toronto said. was a renewed emphasis on attacking the strike zone and a slight mechanical tweak in his posture over the rubber. While he lamented those fastballs that led to Kiner-Falefa and Durbin’s homers. he still pushed himself past the sixth and seventh innings after grinding through his past three outings.

“I’m the same pitcher,” Yesavage said. “But it was just the confidence level, knowing my stuff plays and throw it in the zone and let them hit it.”

Eliminating walks had been a clear priority for the 22-year-old, and pitching coach Pete Walker explained what was changed. Walker said they 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.”.

Walker added that the staff also worked on a physical adjustment to keep Yesavage from opening up and “getting on his pitches a little too early.” He described the tweak in terms of how Yesavage positions his upper body.

“He has an unusual delivery,” Walker said. “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.”.

By the end, the theme was simple: it looked like the best version of Yesavage—at least for one night—and Toronto rolled with it.

“Against the Red Sox, it all added up to what Valenzuela described as ‘our best Trey Yesavage and we rolled with it.’”

The Blue Jays weren’t just snapping a slump—they were finishing off a rare kind of success at Fenway Park. Toronto earned its first sweep at Fenway Park since August 2023, and it also improved to 10-6 in their last 16 road games after a 6-14 start away from the dome.

John Schneider, the Blue Jays’ manager, said he liked the way the pieces fit across all phases.

“I really liked ‘the way we did it, with a little bit of everything between pitching, defence, offence and base-running. I thought we played pretty complete baseball these three games,’” Schneider said.

The question now is what happens next when the bullpen is no longer carrying the weight of a seven-man night. For Toronto, the answer starts with whether Yesavage can keep the confidence level—and the walk prevention—that turned this sweep into a statement at Fenway Park.

Trey Yesavage Toronto Blue Jays Boston Red Sox Isiah Kiner-Falefa Caleb Durbin Brandon Valenzuela Aroldis Chapman Mason Fluharty Vladimir Guerrero Jr. George Springer Yohendrick Pinango Fenway Park MLB