TORONTO \u2014 He emerged from the dugout as if transported from a bygone era, when starting pitchers doubled as closers: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, in the ninth inning, of the World Series. Before last night\u2019s 5-1 victory by the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Toronto Blue Jays, a decade had passed since a pitcher finished what he started on this stage.<\/p>\n
Within the constellation of Dodgers starters, Yamamoto hovers beneath the radar. He does not possess the stateside resume of teammate Blake Snell. He does not live beneath the glow of worldwide fame like Shohei Ohtani. He lacks the otherworldly physicality of the 6-foot-8 Tyler Glasnow. But he may be the best pitcher of the bunch, as he demonstrated at Rogers Centre on Saturday, disarming the Blue Jays and drawing the World Series even as one victory apiece.<\/p>\n
In scattering four hits and striking out eight, Yamamoto logged the first Fall Classic complete game since Johnny Cueto\u2019s Game 2 gem for the Kansas City Royals in 2015. Building off a masterful NLCS performance, Yamamoto became the first pitcher to log consecutive postseason complete games since Arizona Diamondbacks ace Curt Schilling in 2001, and the first Dodger to do it since Orel Hershiser in 1988.<\/p>\n
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman matched Yamamoto until the seventh inning. A pair of seventh-inning solo home runs by Dodgers catcher Will Smith and third baseman Max Muncy felled Gausman. In the eighth, the Dodgers squeezed two more out of Toronto\u2019s bullpen to create a cushion for Yamamoto.<\/p>\n
Game 1 erased the perception of inevitability surrounding the Dodgers. The defending champions had given up four runs in a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Blue Jays hung 11 on them in eight innings. Toronto taxed the two-time Cy Young award winner Snell, expelled him from the game in the sixth and feasted on his underwhelming replacements. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts cannot manage with the confidence and verve in handling his pitching staff last October; a rickety bullpen can make a skipper look skittish.<\/p>\n
Across the diamond, Blue Jays manager John Schneider found himself hosting members of the franchise\u2019s royal family. Cito Gaston, the manager of the championship squads in 1992 and 1993, threw out the first pitch on Friday. To top that, the team brought in Joe Carter, the slugger who launched the walkoff homer to win it all in 1993.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously,\u201d Schneider said, \u201cthe most recognized swing in the history of our franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n
No Blue Jay has usurped Carter in that category this October. But they are adding their names into franchise lore: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.\u2019s grand slam against the Yankees; George Springer\u2019s pennant-winning dinger last round; And Addison Barger\u2019s pinch-hit grand slam to turn Game 1 into a rout. The mood was high in the hours before the game. Schneider, a member of the Blue Jays organization since being drafted as a catcher out of the University of Delaware in 2002, chuckled when asked if he ever daydreamed about his own place in Toronto history.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m thinking about Yamamoto and the Dodgers.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the second game in a row, on Saturday the Dodgers struck first. Freddie Freeman won an eight-pitch tussle with Gausman by flicking a two-out double into the right-field corner. Smith brought Freeman home with a single up the middle.<\/p>\n
But for the second game in a row, the Blue Jays answered. Toronto subjected Yamamoto to heavy traffic and high stress from the outset. Yamamoto needed 23 pitches to complete a scoreless first inning. He worked around an error by Freeman in the second. In the third, he smoked Springer with a 96.4 mph fastball, surrendered a screaming single off the left-field wall to Guerrero and permitted the game-tying run to score on a sacrifice fly by catcher Alejandro Kirk.<\/p>\n
The middle frames offered dueling canvasses for the starting pitchers. At 27, Yamamoto is both one of the most decorated pitchers in the history of Nippon Professional Baseball \u2014 a three-time Pacific League MVP and three-time winner of the equivalent of the Cy Young award \u2014 and also the signee of a 13-year, $325 million contract, the richest ever for a pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball. Gausman, of course, is far from a slouch. When Gausman signed with Toronto after the 2021 season, his five-year, $110 million deal demonstrated the team\u2019s commitment to spending around its young core.<\/p>\n
Gausman settled into a groove after the first. He retired 17 in a row before Smith went deep in the seventh. He jammed them with fastballs and fooled them with splitters. He required only 65 pitches to complete six innings.<\/p>\n
In the seventh, though, Gausman wobbled. Smith turned on a full-count fastball at the belt for his first home run of the postseason. Two batters later, Muncy showed the strength to power a 95.9 mph fastball over the left-field fence for an opposite-field shot. The blast was Muncy\u2019s 15th postseason homer as a Dodger and extended his franchise record.<\/p>\n
\nWILL TO THE SECOND DECK! #WORLDSERIES<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/1grYy67gVZ<\/a><\/p>\n