Toronto (Canada) (AFP) – Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hailed Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s resilience after the Japanese ace delivered one of the most remarkable pitching performances in World Series history to clinch the championship over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday. Less than 24 hours after throwing 96 pitches as the starter in Friday’s series-leveling Game Six, Yamamoto emerged from the bullpen in Game Seven to guide the Dodgers to a 5–4 extra-innings victory at Toronto’s Rogers Centre — a feat that defied both logic and baseball convention.
Normally, elite pitchers are granted several days’ rest after seeing significant duty — a reflection of the extraordinary stresses and strains that the craft can place on the human body. The 26-year-old right-hander, who was named World Series Most Valuable Player, admitted he had doubts about whether his arm would respond after such a heavy workload. “When I started in the bullpen before I went in, to be honest, I was not really sure if I could pitch up there to my best ability,” Yamamoto said. “But as I started getting warmed up I started making a little bit of an adjustment, and then I started thinking I can go in and do my job.”
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Yamamoto’s nerveless contribution on Saturday — which saw him shepherd the Dodgers over the line in a nail-biting 11th inning — left team-mates and coaching staff in disbelief. “It’s unheard of, and I think that there’s a mind component, there’s a delivery, which is a flawless delivery, and there’s just an unwavering will,” Roberts said. “I just haven’t seen it before. I really haven’t. You know, all that combined. There’s certain players that want moments and there’s certain players that want it for the right reasons, but Yoshi is a guy that I just completely implicitly trust.”
Roberts said Yamamoto — who had already thrown two complete games in the postseason, including in a game two win over the Blue Jays last week — benefited from an “efficient” technique. “He just uses his body very efficiently,” the Dodgers manager said. “It’s the whole engine that works and not just the arm. So he’s just very efficient with his delivery. Throwing a hundred pitches and coming back after one day off and going three innings, it’s pretty crazy. I’m kind of crazy for sending him back out there. But I just felt he was the best option.”
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who was instrumental in luring Yamamoto to Los Angeles from Japan in 2023 on a $325 million 12-year contract, said he had been sceptical when first told that the pitcher had made himself available to pitch on Saturday. “Last night I got a text saying ‘Yama is preparing and doing everything he can to be ready for tomorrow’. I was like ‘Yeah, that’s great, he loves to compete, whatever’,” Friedman said. “Today there was another text, saying ‘He got treatment again, he thinks he’s going to be ready.’ Wow. For him to have as good stuff tonight as he had last night is maybe the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen on a baseball field.”
Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy added simply of Yamamoto: “The guy’s a psychopath. How do you come back out a day after you’ve thrown 96 pitches? He went out and put himself on the line for us and still dominated. It was absolutely incredible.”
© 2024 AFP
