IT'S 1-1 IN THE SERIES

IT'S EVEN, BUT THE DODGERS HAVE AD IN

asTHERE IS NO ONE BETTER THAN YOSHI

DODGERS 5, BLUE JAYS 1

It’s a good thing that the suspects have been arrested in connection with the jewelry heist from Paris’ Louvre museum, because the next crown jewel could have been Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

“Today’s game, we had to win. That’s how I treated this game.” Yoshinobu Yamamoto, through his interpreter, Yoshihiro Sonada.

Yamamoto has been/is magnificent. Last night, he retired the last 20 batters he faced using an assortment of pitches, each effectively (see below). In registering the first World Series complete game since Game 2 in 2015, when Johnny Cueto and the Kansas City Royals stopped the Mets, Yamamoto did more than just even the Series: Yoshi gave the Dodgers home field advantage in this best-of-five portion of the Series that moves tomorrow to Los Angeles.

More importantly, he saved the Dodgers from having to go to their bullpen. We still don’t know how well Roki Sasaki performs when asked to produce across multiple games against the same team. We really have no clue who the Dodgers can use as the 7th- and 8th-inning bridge to Sasaki, although I suspect we will find out in Game 3 when Tyler Glasnow pitches.

For the second game in a row, the 1st inning foretold how the Dodgers would do in the game. In the opening frame of Game 1, the Jays knew they had Blake Snell when they forced him to throw 29 stressful pitches. In the 1st in Game 2, Los Angeles put together two two-out hits by Freddie Freeman (a double, of course) and Will Smith (an RBI single) to take a 1-0 lead. Toronto opened the bottom of the inning with a George Springer double and a Nathan Lukes bloop single. But then, Yamamoto battled and struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who could have tied the game simply by hitting a 6-4-3 DP. Appreciate that for a moment. This postseason, Vladdy has 60 plate appearances and four total strikeouts. He’s hitting .431. Then, Yamamoto got Alejandro Kirk and Daulton Varsho without allowing a run. He had thrown 23 pitches, with the ease and demeanor of a parent and kid having a catch. Yoshi had them.

In the 3rd, Yoshi hit Springer, permitted a hard single to Guerrero, and allowed the game-tying run to score on a sacrifice fly by Kirk. Vlad's single was the last hit for Toronto. That flyball by Alejandro was the first of 20 batters that Yamamoto retired to end the game.

Meanwhile, Kevin Gausman was pitching a great game as well. He retired 17 straight before Will Smith homered, and one batter later, Max Muncy homered. And right there, you can see how dangerous the Dodgers are. It wasn’t their three MVPs (Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman) that did in Toronto; it was two stars who are just role players on this team.

The Series, to me, is now like a tennis match with both players tied at 40-40, but with the server having ad in. Not only are the Dodgers home for games 3, 4, and 5, but if Toronto can stretch this to a Game 6 back home, Yoshi will be waiting for them.

THAT’S TWO STRAIGHT CGs FOR YAMAMOTO

Last night, Yamamoto threw his second consecutive complete game, allowing just a run on four hits, while striking out eight. It was also his second consecutive 5-1 win, also doing it in another Game 2 (NLCS against Milwaukee).

The only other Dodgers pitcher to throw consecutive complete games in the postseason is Orel Hershiser. In 1988, he tossed a 6-0 shutout in game 7 of the NLCS against the Mets. Then, in Game 2 of the World Series, he blanked Oakland, 6-0. And then, he had a third complete game victory (5-2) over the A’s in Game 5 of the World Series, the finale of that Series.

The last pitcher to throw consecutive postseason complete games was the Diamondbacks’ Curt Schilling (and you thought that Blake Treinen was awful) in 2001.

YAMAMOTO’S ARSENAL