Yesavage sets the tone, bullpen follows suit in Blue Jays' Game 1 World Series win

One year ago, Trey Yesavage was pitching in college. On Friday night he became the youngest player to start a World Series game in 78 years. The 22-year-old buckled, but never broke in an 11-4 Toronto Blue Jays victory that also puts them ahead 1-0 in the World Series over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

While it wasn't his most dominant outing in his young MLB career - it was good enough to keep the Blue Jays in the game and set the tone for how the Blue Jays were going to attack the Dodgers offense.

Trey Yesavage sets the tone, Blue Jays bullpen follows suit in Game 1 World Series win

Yesavage could not have started the series any better. Facing the reigning MVP winner, Yesavage struck out Shohei Ohtani on five pitches, making him look foolish on the 85.2 mph splitter he through him in a 2-2 count.

The next two batters grounded out and Yesavage had a 1-2-3 top of the first inning. But he ran into some trouble in the second. A walk, a fielders choice and a single put runners on first and second with one out. Up stepped Enrique Hernández who hit a middle-away slider into center field, bringing Teoscar Hernández in around to score the first run of the World Series. Tommy Edman then singled to load the bases.

That brought number nine hitter Andy Pages to the plate. He was quickly down 0-2 but then laid off three straight pitches to run the count full. On a 3-2 count, Yesavage went with the slider and it fooled Pages who swung right over the top of his shoestrings, missing the ball for the second out. But Yesavage wasn't out of danger yet.

Ohtani came to the plate looking to do damage, and he got himself into a hitters count at 2-1. But Yesavage went back to the slider, below the strike zone and Ohtani couldn't do anything but pound it into the ground down the first base line, where it was scooped up by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who got the force out at the bag.

In the third inning, Yesavage once again allowed a few runners on with a couple of walks but managed to record a couple of outs with only one run scored and a runner on third, with Max Muncy at the dish. Yesavage struck out Muncy on five pitches, ending the at-bat with an 82 mph splitter that was nowhere close to the zone, but Muncy was flailing at it, and ended the inning with a runner in scoring position.

Yesavage then struck out the next two hitters to start the fourth inning and his night was done after Andy Pages flied out to Myles Straw. His final line was four innings pitched, four hits allowed, two earned runs and five strike outs. He kept the Blue Jays in the game through the first four innings and in the bottom of the fourth, Daulton Varsho connected on a two-run home run to tie the game at 2-2.

That gave the Blue Jays a home run in all three of the first game of a World Series they've played in, joining Joe Carter in 1992, and Devon White and John Olerud in 1993. The Blue Jays would then break things open in the sixth with a nine run inning, capped off by Addison Barger's pinch hit grand slam - the first ever pinch hit grand slam in World Series history.

But as important as those runs were, the bullpen behind Yesavage was just as solid. Mason Fluharty, Seranthony Dominguez, Braydon Fisher, Chris Bassitt and Eric Lauer combined to allow two runs on two hits while racking up eight strikeouts over the final five innings. The lone blemish being Shohei Ohtani's two-run home run in the seventh inning off of Fisher.

The Blue Jays pitching staff had a clear game plan and it began with Yesavage executing his pitches right from the get go. And while he started to miss and threw some pitches that became erratic, he got out of some big jams and ended with a flourish in the fourth.

The big lead also allowed the Blue Jays to save some of their bigger bullpen weapons for another day as Louis Varland and Jeff Hoffman were not needed in this opening game. Now the ounus is on the Dodgers to try and answer back and split the first two games before heading to Los Angeles.