There was always going to be just one man who was most deserving of winning World Series MVP honors after the Los Angeles Dodgers triumphed over the Toronto Blue Jays after 11 pressure-packed innings in Game 7. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a day after throwing 96 pitches as the team's starter in their Game 6 win, somehow managed to throw 2.2 innings in relief and got himself out of multiple jams before Will Smith's home run powered the Dodgers to a 5-4 win.
Yamamoto's durability and endurance are unparalleled in today's game. It's unfathomable that someone could handle throwing these many high-leverage pitches. But Yamamoto is not quite like any other pitcher. He underwent rigorous training in Japan under the tutelage of his personal trainer and biomechanist Osamu Yada, affectionately known as Yada Sensei, and this helped mold the Dodgers star into the immovable object he became towards the end of the World Series.
“He's the person who built me,” Yamamoto said, per Jeff Passan of MLB.com.
It was in 2017 when Yamamoto began working with Yada, who began to push the Dodgers star to the limits of what he's capable of. Using methods that people stateside may find unorthodox, Yada helped unlock Yamamoto and turn him into the pitcher he is today.
“What Yoshinobu is trying to do is to use 600 different muscles at 10 percent output. You can't think about 600 things at once and throw. So it's learning to prioritize which parts of the movement are the most important. And learning to have that conversation with yourself about where there might be imbalances and how to correct those things,” Yada said.
Yamamoto's emergence into becoming the first since Hall of Famer Randy Johnson to pitch in relief in Game 7 after starting Game 6 of the World Series should invite a closer look into the methods that Yada Sensei and his team used to transform the Dodgers star into the biggest hero of the 2025 Fall Classic.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto rescues Dodgers' depleted pitching corps
Game 3 of the World Series took a lot out of the Dodgers' relief corps. That's what an 18-inning marathon would do. They had to rely on three different starters to back up Shohei Ohtani after he allowed a home run to Bo Bichette in Game 7 — with Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, and then Yamamoto needing to get the Dodgers across the finish line.
Yamamoto did have some nervous moments; Isiah Kiner-Falefa nearly scored the walk-off run on a bang-bang play at the plate, and Ernie Clement nearly hit one off the outfield wall to drive everyone home. But he did get the outs, and that's what matters the most.
