The World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays is now tied 1-1 after a historic pitching duel in Game 2 at Rogers Centre. The Dodgers overcame their one-sided 11-4 defeat in Game 1 to win 5-1 on Saturday night, led by a masterful complete-game performance from Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Yamamoto scattered four hits, struck out eight, and walked none across 105 pitches. He retired the final 20 batters he faced, including striking out the side in the eighth inning, to record his second consecutive complete game of the postseason. This is the first time since Curt Schilling in 2001 that a pitcher has thrown back-to-back complete postseason games.
The 27-year-old right-hander also became the first Los Angeles pitcher to throw a World Series complete game since Orel Hershiser in 1988 and the first pitcher overall to record multiple postseason complete games since Madison Bumgarner in 2014. Yamamoto’s stellar outing lowered his postseason ERA to 1.57, having allowed only five runs over 28.2 innings in October.
The Dodgers' offense broke the tie in the seventh inning. Will Smith hammered a full-count, 404-foot home run off Kevin Gausman, his first homer of the postseason. Two batters later, Max Muncy extended the lead with a 95.9 mph fastball homer, giving the Dodgers a 3-1 advantage.
Additional runs in the eighth inning off Toronto relievers Louis Varland and Jeff Hoffman expanded the lead to 5-1, providing Yamamoto room to finish his gem without needing relief support. Smith contributed three RBIs on the night, including the first-inning single that scored Freddie Freeman to open the scoring.
After a challenging first inning, Gausman settled in and retired 17 consecutive Los Angeles batters, matching Yamamoto’s dominance and contributing to a rare MLB feat. Game 2 became the first postseason game in history where both starting pitchers retired 17 or more batters in a row (h/t Sarah Langs of MLB.com). Gausman required just 65 pitches to complete six innings and kept the Dodgers scoreless until the seventh-inning homers by Smith and Muncy.
The series now shifts to Los Angeles for Games 3 through 5, starting Monday.
