TORONTO: Finishing what he starts has become a postseason trend for Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander pitched his second consecutive complete game Saturday night in a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays to knot the World Series at one apiece.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series will be played Monday in Los Angeles, with Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow opposing Blue Jays right-hander Max Scherzer.
With the game tied 1-1 in the seventh, Will Smith (three RBIs) and Max Muncy each hit solo homers to back Yamamoto.
Yamamoto (3-1) allowed one run, four hits and no walks while striking out eight.
“To be honest, I was not thinking I could 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.”
He managed his pitch count as the game progressed and it finished at 105 with 73 strikes, retiring his final 20 batters.
“At the end of the fifth inning, I believe the pitch count was 71, so at that point I was still trying to take it one inning at a time,” Yamamoto said. “If I was going to the ninth inning or not, we didn’t really talk about it.”
In his previous start, he pitched a three-hit complete game in a 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Oct. 14. He was the first Dodger to throw a postseason complete game since Jose Lima in 2004.
Orel Hershiser was the last Dodger with consecutive postseason complete games in Game 7 of the 1988 NLCS and Games 2 and 5 in the 1988 World Series.
“Second complete game in a row in the postseason, that’s pretty impressive, with a layoff in between,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “I think he made it hard for us to make him work. He was in the zone, his split was in and out of the zone. It was a really good performance by him.”
Los Angeles opened the scoring in the first inning against Kevin Gausman (2-2). Freddie Freeman ripped a two-out double into the right field corner and scored on Smith’s single to center.
The Blue Jays threatened in the bottom of the inning when George Springer led off with a double and Nathan Lukes singled. Yamamoto escaped the jam with two strikeouts and a lineout.
Toronto tied it in the third. Springer was hit by a pitch to open the inning. He took third on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s one-out single to deep left and scored on Alejandro Kirk’s sacrifice fly to center.
Game 2 then settled into a pitchers’ duel.
“After that first inning, I was thinking six (innings),” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I felt he would find a way to get through six. ...Then the pitch count kind of stayed where it needed to stay. And then for me, I just didn’t see anything fall off as far as his delivery and the execution.”
Gausman retired 17 in a row until Smith smashed a 3-2 fastball to left with one out in the seventh for his first home run of the postseason. With two outs, Muncy hit his second homer of the postseason, a blast to left on a 2-2 fastball.
“Huge relief,” Roberts said. “Gausman was throwing really well. We were in between, I thought, offensively with the fastball. When Will got into that 3-2 count, just missed a 3-1 heater, and then they went to the well again and hit a homer, and there was just complete elation.
“We felt that the way Yamamoto was throwing, runs were certainly going to be hard to come by. And then when Max backed it up with another homer, just huge relief.”
Louis Varland replaced Gausman, who allowed three runs, four hits and no walks while striking out six in 6 2/3 innings.
Varland gave up one-out singles to Andy Pages and Shohei Ohtani in the eighth. Mookie Betts walked to load the bases and Jeff Hoffman took over from Varland. Hoffman’s wild pitch scored Pages. Freeman was intentionally walked to load the bases again. Toronto could not complete the double play on Smith’s fielder’s-choice grounder to shortstop and another run scored.
Yamamoto took over the rest of the way.
“It’s the first time we have seen him, so you get some feedback and hopefully make some adjustments,” Schneider said. “But, really, I think right now, you’re worried about Glasnow (in) Game 3. But I think we do a really good job of making adjustments as we see guys. Again, man, that was a great performance by him.”