Last Night in Baseball: Blue Jays World Series Hero Trey Yesavage Has Returned

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: It might be hard to believe, but Blue Jays’ starter Trey Yesavage is still a rookie. He didn’t debut until mid-September of last year, and while he starred in the postseason and World Series for Toronto — he had a 3.58 ERA across six games and five starts, with 17 strikeouts in 12.2 World Series innings — none of that counts against his rookie eligibility. And while it’s nearly the end of April now, offseason shoulder surgery kept him out until Tuesday, when he made his 2026 debut against the Red Sox in Toronto. The Blue Jays certainly need Yesavage in their rotation, and now. The 6-foot-4 right-hander, who won’t turn 23 until the end of July, arrived on the scene of a sub-.500 team with a rotation full of holes: while Kevin Gausman and free-agent acquisition Dylan Cease have been everything they need to be and more, Eric Lauer, who split time in 2025 between the rotation and bullpen, was back starting and doing a poor job of it, and veteran Max Scherzer posted a 9.64 ERA over five starts before landing on the IL with multiple injuries. Three others have filled in to start already, and Shane Bieber — a former Cy Young winner acquired at the deadline last year and productive in both the regular season and postseason for Toronto — has yet to make a start in 2026 and is on the 60-day IL thanks to a stress fracture in his elbow. If Patrick Corbin wasn’t somehow rewinding time to pitch at an above-average clip again, things would be even worse for the Jays’ rotation. In Yesavage’s first start back, he took on a Red Sox team that had improved its run differential by 23 runs over its last three games — they had not been hitting all season, but seemed to finally be doing so. Yesavage brought them back to their old ways in a hurry, with 5.1 scoreless innings that featured just three strikeouts, but also four scattered hits and no walks. Four relievers combined to take the shutout the rest of the way, and Toronto would win, 3-0. The Blue Jays are 14-16, which is disappointing, but they are also 14-16 after going all this way without Yesavage until now and Bieber at all, with some horrifying performances from multiple starters and with Alejandro Kirk, Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes, Anthony Santander and George Springer all on the IL and missing from the lineup. It’s not too late for them to turn things around and look like they did a year ago, when they made it to their first World Series since 1993. Yesavage’s successful season debut is a reminder of that — this team just got better, and will get better still every time another key player exits the IL. Munetaka Murakami took MLB’s homer lead for himself on Monday night with his 12th long ball of the year, breaking a brief tie with Yankees’ slugger Aaron Judge. Judge resumed that tie on Tuesday, and did it both to impress and to win. The Yankees were up 2-0 in the top of the ninth when Judge strode to the plate against Rangers’ reliever Cole Winn. He would take a 2-2 four-seam fastball from the righty that was left up in the zone and hit it 424 feet to left-center, with an exit velocity of 112.7 mph. Judge crushed that one. And while it was just an insurance run at this point with Cam Schittler and the Yankees’ bullpen outdueling Texas ace Jacob deGrom, New York was glad to have said insurance in the bottom of the ninth. There, David Bednar allowed two hits and two runs, after a throwing error by third baseman Ryan McMahon allowed outfielder Andrew McCutchen to reach and Bednar hit center fielder Brandon Nimmo with a pitch. He ended up getting out of the inning in the end, though, when shortstop Corey Seager grounded into a double play that was upheld by a challenge. Part of the fine Yankees’ performance by the bullpen prior to Bednar came from Fernando Cruz, who got out of the bottom of the eighth despite letting one runner on with a walk and another with a hit. And he got the first out he needed from the ground. More specifically, while on his butt. Cruz slid to secure the ball, then basically fell backwards while throwing to third — it barely got there in time, but the ball made it all the same, and the lead runner was out, inevitably helping to preserve the shutout. And given Bednar’s performance in the ninth, this was as key as Judge’s dinger for giving the Yankees the W without the need for extras. Pirates’ rookie Konnor Griffin hasn’t taken off offensively yet, but it was never expected he would proverbially hit the ground running there. His glove was big-league ready before his bat was, but the best place for him to learn how to hit in the majors was in the majors. On Tuesday, he showed off a bit of his education so far, hitting his second home run of the year but his first at the Pirates’ home, PNC Park. That was a real shot, too, a 403-foot blast to right-center that came off the bat at over 107 mph, a 97-mph sinker that Griffin hit the other way with authority. That’s an exciting moment for Griffin, but maybe not as exciting for him as for the fan who picked up the homer. And all his friends, of course. Seeing Pirates’ fans happy is a rarity, but maybe it’ll happen more and more as Griffin figures things out. And between this homer and three multi-hit games in his last five, well, it might be starting to happen already. Francisco Lindor is on the IL, which makes hitting leadoff home runs — a thing he does with regularity — a problem. No worries, though: third baseman Bo Bichette is filling in atop the order, and on Tuesday also went yard on the very first pitch the Mets saw against the Nationals. That would be the lone run in the game for a few innings, but then New York erupted for a seven-run fourth inning, which included but was not limited to two walks, a fielder’s choice that resulted in a run, a run-scoring sac fly, multiple singles and Juan Soto hitting a two-run shot, his second of an injury-shortened year. After all that happened, the Nationals took out starting pitcher Zack Litell. Washington would end up losing, 8-0, as the Mets didn’t just have the offense clicking but got six scoreless innings out of righty starter Clay Holmes before the bullpen took over and — though it may be difficult to believe if you have watched much Mets baseball this season — allowed one baserunner and zero runs the rest of the way. Drew Romo is not a rookie. He hasn’t played a ton in the majors, but the catcher debuted back in 2024 and has appeared in 22 games with 65 plate appearances in the bigs. In that time, Romo has never hit a home run. Or, had never hit a home run. He’s also never been a big power hitter in the minors, with just 49 in six seasons there, or, an average of 17 per 162 games. On Tuesday, he bashed his first in MLB, a two-run shot off of Angels’ starter Jose Soriano. If you have been paying attention to the season Soriano is having, you would already know how improbable this dinger was. Before this start, the righty had a 0.24 ERA on the season and had allowed a single run, and it wasn’t like this was all luck, as he was genuinely shoving out there. But look, things get more improbable: Romo came up again the very next inning, and hit another home run. This one didn’t come against Soriano, but still. Another homer, so soon after the first of his big-league career? His three RBIs alone were enough to down the Angels, which lost 5-3 to Chicago, dropping them to 12-19. Soriano has been basically the only great part of the Angels’ rotation, and the bullpen has caused problems for everyone else in it when they do manage to put a strong start together, so losing one of his games is not a great omen for the rest of this turn through it. After April 9’s game against the Marlins, Reds’ shortstop Elly De La Cruz was batting just .231/.310/.423 with a .733 OPS. Not awful by any means, but not what Cincinnati needs out of a player who is supposed to be a star. In the 15 games since, De La Cruz is hitting .338/.403/.723 with 22 hits, seven homers, 18 RBIs and five steals in six attempts. On Tuesday against the Rockies, De La Cruz went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs, four RBIs and his 10th home run of the year. He’s now hitting .291/.362/.590 for the season, and in the first month of the year is 45% of the way to last year’s dinger total. Sure, he won’t hit exactly like this for the entire season, but remember: De La Cruz had an .854 OPS at the end of July last season despite a slow start, before a left quad strain sapped his power and production for the rest of the season. A healthy De La Cruz is great news for the Reds and bad for everyone facing them. On Monday, Cardinals’ rookie second baseman JJ Wetherholt showed off his power with his sixth long ball of the year, and on Tuesday, he flashed his glove. Look at the range on that one, getting to the outfield grass, and then the 23-year-old was able to spin and throw from the ground and get it to first not just in time, but he also overthrew a little. Credit to first baseman Alec Burleson there for managing to stretch up high and away from the bag without actually leaving it until after he had toe-tapped the bag to be sure that the ump saw everything was in order. St. Louis would end up defeating Pittsburgh 11-7 — sorry, excited Konnor Griffin fans, at least you got that ball. The Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson on Tuesday, and while there is much to consider in terms of what’s next for Philadelphia, in the short-term, there are ballgames on the schedule. And on Tuesday, the Phillies won their first without Thomson in the dugout in years. Don Mattingly took over as interim manager, and the Phillies responded with a 7-0 shutout of the Giants. Shortstop Trea Turner deserves quite a bit of credit, as the leadoff hitter went 4-for-5 with two runs and an RBI, while first baseman Bryce Harper had a pair of hits and right fielder Adolis Garcia drove in a pair. The sixth inning was the big one, with Turner leading off with a single followed by a walk from DH Kyle Schwarber. Harper then doubled in a run, with Garcia hitting his own double right after to score both Schwarber and Harper — all of this came off of Giants’ starter Tyler Mahle, and all without any outs, to boot. Left fielder Brandon Marsh would pop out against new pitcher Matt Gage, but then the lefty would walk the next batter, second baseman Bryson Stott, and allow an RBI double to struggling third baseman Alec Bohm. The Phillies would add two more runs later on, but they weren’t necessary thanks to the performance of starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo, who went seven scoreless with eight strikeouts while allowing just two baserunners, both on hits. Luzardo is admittedly either dominant or a wreck out there on the mound, and the coin landed on the better side this time, but if the Phillies can get more starts close to this one at the same time that ace Zack Wheeler is back, it could go a long way towards repairing the significant damage April has already caused to their season.