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TORONTO – Thirty minutes after pitching the game of his life, and after completing all of his media obligations, Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto finally sat down at his locker and let out a big sigh. Then, he got back to work.
This wasn’t a difficult burden. Yamamoto was just cleaning out his locker in the Rogers Centre visitor’s clubhouse, so that he could join his teammates on the Dodgers team bus. But packing up his many intricate belongings looked more laborious for Yamamoto than the task of navigating the Blue Jays lineup in Game 2 of a World Series matchup. He made that look easy.
“Outstanding, uber-competitive, special. Yeah, he was just locked in tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It was one of those things he said before the series: losing is not an option. And he had that look tonight.”
It was challenging for Yamamoto’s teammates to describe the awe and admiration they felt watching the 27-year-old pitch a four-hit complete game in the Dodgers’ 5-1 win against the Blue Jays on Saturday. It’s not just that he went the distance, whiffing eight batters and walking none, to avoid putting the Dodgers in a 0-2 hole in the World Series. His magnificent 105-pitch performance came on the heels of yet another complete game in his last start in the NL Championship Series against the Brewers.
“It’s hard to — there’s not enough adjectives, superlatives, anything you want to say,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “There’s just not. To do it in back-to-back starts, and what, in less than 110 pitches. It’s amazing.”
Freeman was astonished at how efficient Yamamoto was after the Blue Jays put traffic on the basepaths in the early innings. The right-hander allowed the leadoff man to reach base in the first, second, and third inning. After three frames, he was at 46 pitches. He only needed 59 pitches across the next six innings to finish the game.
Remarkably, Yamamoto got better as he went along.
“To be honest, I was not thinking I can complete the game because my pitch count racked up kind of quickly,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “But I’m very happy I completed the game.”
Dodgers starter Blake Snell told me Yamamoto’s dominant outing looked like the stuff of video games.
Yamamoto became the first pitcher to pitch back-to-back complete games in the postseason since Curt Schilling fired three consecutive for the Diamondbacks in 2001. The last time a pitcher threw a complete game in the LCS and World Series in the same year was the Florida Marlins’ Josh Beckett in 2003 (NLCS Game 5 vs. the Cubs, World Series Game 6 vs. the Yankees).
Veteran pitcher Clayton Kershaw viewed the fact that Yamamoto finished the game as a positive sign that baseball is trending toward the era of dominant starting pitching again. Complete games were once common in the World Series. Starting pitchers were built to go out there and win the game. Kershaw, whose 25 complete games are the second-most by an active pitcher, behind Justin Verlander, can do without the uptick in bullpen games.
“The way he throws the baseball is perfect,” Kershaw said of Yamamoto. “No wasted movement. So efficient. And then he can do everything. He came here, fastball, curveball, splitter, basically. And now he’s throwing sinkers, cutters, sliders. So he’s got six pitches with command that he uses really well. It was amazing. It was really impressive.”
Yamamoto’s only real blemish of the night was an uncharacteristic wild pitch that hit George Springer near his wrist to lead off the third inning. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. moved Springer up to third on a single to left, and Alejandro Kirk scored him on a sacrifice fly. It tied the game at 1-1. But Yamamoto instantly dialed back in and retired the next 20 consecutive batters to finish the game.
“He hit Springer, but other than that, he was pretty flawless,” Kershaw said. “Once he started getting the leadoff man out, he was perfect.”
‘One of the best pitching performances I’ve seen’ – Jeter, A-Rod & Papi react to Yamamoto’s complete game
The Blue Jays were completely off-kilter. If you only tuned in to watch Game 2 of the World Series, you would have a hard time believing Toronto’s offense sported the lowest strikeout rate in the league this season, including in the playoffs. Yamamoto induced nine strikeouts against the Jays, which was more than double the amount of times they whiffed in Game 1. The Jays’ sound offensive approach was worthless with an elite Yamamoto on the mound.
“That’s a big loss,” Yamamoto said of the Dodgers’ 11-4 thrashing in Game 1. “And then, needless to say, today’s game, we had to win. So that’s just how I treated this game.”
Yamamoto is now 3-1 with a 1.57 ERA this postseason, allowing seven runs (five earned) on 17 hits with four walks, 26 strikeouts, a 0.73 WHIP and a .165 opponents’ batting average. The Japanese flamethrower is the first player to throw multiple complete games in a single postseason since Madison Bumgarner went the distance in the 2014 Wild Card Game and Game 5 of the 2014 World Series for San Francisco.
As electric as he was, the Dodgers are hoping they won’t see him on the mound again this October. That would mean the reigning champions wrapped up the World Series quickly.
“He’s pitched in huge ball games in Japan,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s pitched in the WBC. Players that have the weight of a country on their shoulders, that’s pressure. So I just feel that part of his DNA is to just perform at a high level in big spots and control his heartbeat and just continue to make pitches.”
Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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