World Series: Yoshinobu Yamamoto's complete-game gem helps Dodgers win Game 2, even series with Blue Jays
Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith congratulates pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto after he pitched a complete game to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 2 of the World Series Saturday in Toronto. Credit: AP/Frank Gunn
TORONTO
If Steve Cohen and Hal Steinbrenner had only known.
Maybe pushing up Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s offer sheet even further than the $325 million he ultimately got from the Dodgers still wouldn’t have diverted him from Los Angeles two years ago.
But after the performances everyone has witnessed from the brilliant Yamamoto this October, especially Saturday night’s complete game at a bewildered Rogers Centre — oh, right, his second in as many postseason starts! — we can’t imagine what the price tag would be for an ace of his rare caliber.
Yamamoto stifled the Blue Jays with a 105-pitch gem, allowing only four hits (really three) and striking out eight without a walk to carry the Dodgers to a 5-1 victory in Game 2, tying the World Series before it heads to Chavez Ravine.
“There’s a reason the Dodgers wanted him so bad a couple years ago,” Freddie Freeman said. “And I’m glad we did.”
An added bonus? Freeman and the rest of his teammates who get paid to hit don’t have to face the six-pitch buzzsaw that is Yamamoto, who retired 20 straight after Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s third-inning single.
It’s the longest streak in Dodgers postseason history — no small feat for a franchise built on magnificent starting pitchers — surpassing Carl Erskine, who retired 19 in a row in Game 5 of the 1952 World Series.
Yamamoto also became only the fifth pitcher in World Series history to retire 20 straight to finish a game, joining Don Larsen (27, 1956), Grover Alexander (21, 1926), Dutch Leonard (20, 1915) and Jose Rijo (20, 1990).
As you can tell, these are not frequent occurrences.
Curt Schilling was the last pitcher to throw back-to-back complete games, stringing together three during the 2001 postseason. The last Dodger to pitch a complete game in the World Series was Orel Hershiser in 1988, and he did it twice.
If Yamamoto ends up taking the mound again for a Game 6, he will be attempting to record his third straight complete game. To put that in perspective, he has more complete games this October than 21 teams collected during the entire regular season, and only the Reds (four) and Astros (three) had more — with much lower stakes.
“Well, I love it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s a throwback player, and for me, you feel good about leaving a guy like that in.”
Roberts never considered taking him out. But if there was any glimmer of doubt, even the slightest twinge, Yamamoto made sure to squash it by striking out the side in the eighth against a Jays team that never whiffs. Heading back for the ninth was a done deal.
“There was no discussion,” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “We talked every inning, but probably from like the sixth inning, it was like, ‘All good?’ It was a very simple question — yes — and just move on.”
Talk about a manager’s dream. Once he’s planted on the mound, Yamamoto requires less maintenance than a cactus, with a pitching repertoire that opposing hitters find pretty thorny.
Remember, the Blue Jays exhausted Blake Snell — the reliable ace who had an 0.83 ERA in this postseason — a night earlier in Game 1, driving up his pitch count before chasing him with none out and the bases loaded in the sixth. Toronto wound up pounding the Dodgers’ staff for 14 hits and three homers in an 11-4 rout.
Early on, it looked as if the Jays might do the same to Yamamoto, who faced a first-and-third, none-out jam in the first and needed 23 pitches before getting out of it.
But other than the 97-mph fastball that drilled George Springer on the left forearm to open the third — he later scored the only run on Alejandro Kirk’s sacrifice fly — Yamamoto was dialed in from there.
“He was pretty flawless,” Clayton Kershaw said. “I just think the way he throws the baseball is like perfect — no wasted movement, so efficient. And then he can do everything. He’s got six pitches with command that he uses really well.”
One of the Jays’ four hits against him also deserves an asterisk. Freeman botched Ernie Clement’s sky-high pop near the mound, reaching back frantically as it fell behind him. Somehow that easy out — with a .000 expected batting average on Statcast — was scored a single.
“Man, it’s hard to do,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of Yamamoto’s complete game. “I get why Doc let him go. He was that good.”
The idea of giving Yamamoto, unproven in the majors, a 12-year, $325 million contract before the 2024 season seemed outrageous even for the Dodgers (though the Yankees and Mets were right there with the same cash). But after being the anchor to their wounded rotation during the regular season, he now is their postseason savior as well.
He went toe-to-toe with Kevin Gausman on Saturday night until the Blue Jays’ starter finally cracked in the seventh, teeing up a tiebreaking homer by Will Smith and an insurance blast by Max Muncy.
It was an epic staredown between the two aces, and Yamamoto not only didn’t blink first but put the Rogers Centre crowd to sleep.
Afterward, when I asked him if he could appreciate the magnitude of his back-to-back complete games, in October no less, Yamamoto sounded as if he expected to perform such magic on a nightly basis.
“I’m very happy and proud of the fact that I was able to bring a big contribution,” he said through an interpreter, “and give a chance for the team to win.”
The Dodgers? They’re just thrilled he took their money instead of what those guys in New York were offering.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
