Trey Yesavage had one of his toughest nights of the season Saturday, and both he and John Schneider pointed to the same mechanical issue afterward.
The Toronto Blue Jays fell 8-7 to the San Diego Padres, a loss that dropped Toronto to 45-50 and out of third place in the American League East.
Yesavage's line reflected the struggle. He walked seven batters in the outing, a number that stands out even for a rookie still working through his first full season.
Both pitcher and manager agreed on the cause, and it came down to posture in his delivery.
When Yesavage leans back too far, his body starts to fly open, and pitches start spraying all over the zone instead of hitting his spots.
That's a fixable issue, but it's also the kind of mechanical flaw that can turn a solid start into a rough one in a hurry when it shows up mid-game.
His season ERA climbed to 3.72 after the outing, still respectable overall but a clear step back from where it sat just a few starts ago.
Why one bad start doesn't erase his rookie season
Yesavage has still struck out 69 batters across 75 innings this year, numbers that back up why he's been part of the AL Rookie of the Year conversation all season.
A 1.16 WHIP over that stretch shows the walks Saturday were more of an outlier than a trend, at least based on how he's pitched most of this year.
Posture issues in a delivery are common for young pitchers still building consistency, and identifying the problem out loud is usually the first step toward fixing it.
It's a bit like a golfer's swing drifting out of rhythm for one round. The fix is often smaller than the bad round makes it look.
Does one rough posture-driven start change how the Blue Jays think about Yesavage's readiness for bigger innings down the stretch, or is this just part of a rookie's learning curve?
Toronto sits at 45-50 now, fourth in the division, and getting Yesavage's mechanics back in order matters more than ever with the trade deadline closing in.
Are you still confident in Trey Yesavage as a rotation piece down the stretch?
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