TORONTO — When his inning was complete Tuesday night, Alex Vesia leaped off the mound as he always does. He hopped so far, he practically long-jumped his way back to the dugout.
Getting animated is nothing new for Vesia. The Los Angeles Dodgers reliever is a human embodiment of a can of Red Bull, after all. But being back in Toronto was different this time.
This was a rematch of a World Series he never got to pitch in.
“I mean, the past two days have been hard,” Vesia said.
He felt it every time he looked just above the visiting dugout at the Rogers Centre to the family section where his wife, Kayla, watched him.
“I definitely was looking at her, especially after the outing,” he said. “But honestly, during it.”
It was important that Kayla was on this trip. This remains a process for the couple after the death of their newborn daughter, Sterling Sol Vesia, on
Oct. 26, in the middle of the World Series. When Vesia spoke about it this spring, he called watching the series from home “a light in our darkness.”
So maybe there was a little more to Tuesday night, when Vesia took the mound here for the first time since that day and extinguished the Toronto Blue Jays’ best offensive threat in the seventh inning of a 4-1 win. He did so while wearing a glove that had Sterling Sol’s name and birthday stitched into it, a continued reminder.
As he completed his night’s work, he kept his eyes on Kayla.
“That was awesome,” Vesia said. “The adrenaline, the crowd, I feed off that.”
The Dodgers missed Vesia in October, as they and the Blue Jays wore his No. 51 on the side of their caps during the World Series to acknowledge what he was going through.
They need Vesia now, as their bullpen has gotten off to a strong start to the season.
Vesia inherited a mess. Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s solid performance stalled in the seventh inning. A leadoff double by Kazuma Okamoto and a bunt single from Ernie Clement put runners on the corners and nobody out in a 3-1 game. That’s when Vesia came in. It’s a predicament Vesia immediately made worse with a leadoff walk to pinch hitter Davis Schneider to load the bases.
For the first time in this series, the Rogers Centre crowd rose to a roar.
“I think the thing is, what’s great about Alex is, there’s just no panic,” manager Dave Roberts said.
The bullpen’s progress has made things easier on Roberts. It also freed him up to use Vesia in the game’s hottest spots, like this one. Granted, it is April 7 and not last November, but this clearly meant something to Vesia. One inning showed that.
The left-hander has carved out a living in the majors with a fastball that moves more than anyone else’s despite lacking high-end velocity. It’s made him one of the most effective relievers in the sport since he arrived in Los Angeles.
“I know where to go and my strengths,” Vesia said. “It doesn’t happen overnight. This is a long process that started back in ’21 when I first got here. I believe in it more than anything.”
Vesia averaged 91.4 mph on his fastball during his four previous appearances this season. Tuesday, it was 92 mph. The heaters zoomed out of his hand. Two of his 12 fastballs generated at least 26 inches of induced vertical break, something no pitcher had accomplished in a major-league game since the Baltimore Orioles’ Félix Bautista did it in 2023.
That special fastball dug him out of Tuesday night’s jam. Andrés Giménez chased after one above the zone, lifting a shallow fly ball that Teoscar Hernández could corral without allowing a run to score. Brandon Valenzuela went after a high fastball of his own, waving at a pitch above the zone for a strikeout.
Roberts had right-hander Blake Treinen ready to take on Blue Jays slugger George Springer, an escape hatch should things go awry.
Instead, he hung with Vesia. When the left-hander is at his best, he’s been capable of dominating regardless of the opposing hitter’s handedness.
“He’s pitched in a lot of those pressure situations,” Roberts said. “And when he needs to make a pitch, he does that.”
Springer saw nothing but fastballs until Vesia got him to lift one high in the air for a flyout to escape danger. Treinen and new closer Edwin Díaz recorded the final six outs after him to secure the win.
Vesia smiled afterward, poking fun at how difficult he’d made things for himself. He put up a zero regardless. He’ll gladly take how it went.
“I definitely carry (confidence) kind of on my sleeve or on the chest or however you want to explain it,” Vesia said. “But tonight was a great confidence boost and just gotta keep going.”