Toronto (Canada) (AFP) – Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s complete-game masterclass on the mound and home runs from Will Smith and Max Muncy propelled the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays that knotted the World Series at one game apiece on Saturday. Japan’s Yamamoto, who pitched Major League Baseball’s first postseason complete game in eight years in game two of the Dodgers’ National League Championship Series triumph over Milwaukee, again went the distance in scintillating style as the Dodgers bounced back from an 11-4 game-one thrashing.
He retired the last 20 batters he faced, settling in after giving up one run and four hits in a nervy start to out-duel Toronto starting pitcher Kevin Gausman in a nail-biting contest. “Outstanding, uber competitive, special,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Yamamoto. “Yeah, he was just locked in tonight. It was one of those things he said before the series, losing is not an option, and he had that look tonight.”
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Aiming for a quick bounce-back after their lopsided game-one loss, the defending champion Dodgers put up one run in the first inning. Gausman retired Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts in short order to open the contest, but Freddie Freeman belted a two-out, two-strike double and scored on Smith’s single. The Blue Jays then put runners on first and third with no outs in the bottom of the first. Yamamoto escaped the danger but needed 23 pitches to do so and Toronto pulled level in the bottom of the third when Yamamoto hit George Springer with a pitch to open the frame. Springer advanced on a hard-hit single from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and scored on a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield by Alejandro Kirk.
“To be honest, I was not thinking I can complete the game because my pitch count racked up kind of quickly,” Yamamoto said. “But I’m very happy I completed the game. I just adjusted as the game moved on after the whole first inning because it was two runners on bases. The inning I gave up a run, it started by hit by pitch, and I also just reset my mind,” he said. “And after I gave up the run, that was still just a tie, so I just kept going.”
He certainly did. From there, Yamamoto was impenetrable. He struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth then returned to retire Guerrero, Kirk, and Daulton Varsho in the ninth. “He was that good,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Got his 23 pitches in the first, I think — that was probably our best chance. After that it was kind of few and far between.”
Yamamoto pitched the first World Series complete game in 10 years and became the first pitcher since Madison Bumgarner in 2014 with two complete games in a single postseason. He’s the first Dodgers pitcher since Orel Hershiser in 1988 to win back-to-back complete playoff games. “To be honest, I’m not sure about the history, but I’m very happy about what I did today,” Yamamoto said.
Toronto’s Gausman, meanwhile, was proving a tough nut to crack for Dodgers batters. He had retired 17 in a row when Los Angeles catcher Smith crushed a go-ahead home run with one out in the bottom of the seventh, sending a 94-mph fastball 404 feet down the left field line. “Huge relief … there was just complete elation,” Roberts said of Smith’s blast. After Teoscar Hernandez struck out swinging, Muncy pushed the Dodgers’ lead to 3-1, depositing another fastball over the left field wall for his second homer of this postseason. That was the end of Gausman’s night and the Dodgers tacked on two more runs in the eighth. Andy Pages and Shohei Ohtani hit back-to-back one-out singles and, after Mookie Betts walked to load the bases, Pages scored on a wild pitch before Smith hit into a fielder’s choice that plated Ohtani.
“I thought Kev matched (Yamamoto) pitch for pitch, really,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “It was kind of a classic pitchers’ duel and (the Dodgers) made a couple more swings.” Game three of the best-of-seven championship series is on Monday in Los Angeles, where the defending champion Dodgers will also host games four and five, with Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani slated to pitch in game four on Tuesday.
© 2024 AFP
