The Dodgers’ bullpen isn’t a problem when they don’t have to use it.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto went the distance in World Series Game 2 on Saturday. It was a contest of which starter would blink first, and Yamamoto never did. Dodgers catcher Will Smith hit a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning, and the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 5-1 to even this series as it shifts to Los Angeles for Monday’s Game 3.
From the third inning onward, Yamamoto retired the last 20 batters he faced, finishing the game by inducing a popup on his 105th pitch of the night. Yamamoto had gotten into trouble early but minimized the damage and settled in for his second complete game of the postseason. He also pitched all nine innings in Game 2 of the NLCS.
A bullpen meltdown in Game 1 had reinforced the Dodgers’ need to get distance out of their starters, and Yamamoto obliged with eight strikeouts and no walks. It was the first World Series complete game since the Royals’ Johnny Cueto in 2015.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman was nearly as good.
After a two-out single by Smith gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the first inning, Gausman retired 17 batters in a row and carried a 1-run tie into the seventh inning. With one out in the seventh, though, Gausman elevated a full-count fastball that Smith crushed 404 feet to left field for a one-run Dodgers lead. Two batters later, Max Muncy also homered to extend the lead and chase Gausman from the game. He’d struck out six and walked none through 6 2/3 innings.
The Dodgers added two more runs off the Blue Jays bullpen in the eighth. Smith drove in one of those insurance runs to finish the game with three RBIs.
Yamamoto did the rest. He seemed to be in trouble out of the gate when the Blue Jays put runners at the corners with no outs in the bottom of the first inning. Yamamoto then fell behind 2-0 against each of the next three hitters.
The result of those at-bats: strikeout, lineout, strikeout to strand the runners.
Instead of letting the game get away from him, Yamamoto settled into the game.
He pitched around a dropped popup in the second inning, and after he allowed a game-tying sacrifice fly in the third, he breezed through a six-pitch fourth and an eight-pitch fifth. The Blue Jays tried to use their bench in the seventh, and Yamamoto retired pinch hitter Bo Bichette to end the inning. He struck out the side in the eighth. He went through the heart of the Blue Jays’ order in the ninth.
The Dodgers bullpen door never opened, and they had a much needed win.
