As a marathon Game 3 of the World Series between the Dodgers and Blue Jays stretched into the sixth hour, the pitching options for both clubs were dwindling. So much so that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told Fox’s and Sports Illustrated‘s Tom Verducci that if the game went beyond 17 innings, he would have opted to let a position player pitch.
If Roberts was serious, Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto wasn’t about to let it happen. Yamamoto, just two days removed from throwing 105 pitches in a complete game gem in the Game 2 victory, “volunteered” to pitch in the marathon game on Monday night, according to Verducci.
As Verducci chronicled, Yamamoto approached Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior and offered his services in relief, even though he was coming off back-to-back complete games in his last two outings.
And so there was Yamamoto, to the shock of baseball fans, warming up in the bullpen in the top half of the 18th inning, mere minutes before first baseman Freddie Freeman belted a walk-off home run to lift Los Angeles to victory.
Even though, he ultimately didn’t need to turn to Yamamoto, Roberts praised the hurler for his willingness to enter the game after just expending so much energy on the mound two days ago.
“…And Yamamoto with a day off potentially taking the baseball—he was in the next inning,” Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 6-5 win. “And so it just speaks to, guys will do anything to win a championship. And they’re laying it out there.”
But that begs the question.
“He would have gone as long as we needed,” Roberts said. “He would have been the last guy.”
The legend of Yamamoto continues to grow.
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