- - World Series 2025: Yoshinobu Yamamoto helps Dodgers bounce back with another complete game gem: 'He could have gone another 30, 40 pitches tonight'

Russell DorseyOctober 25, 2025 at 11:02 PM

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TORONTO — Yoshinobu Yamamoto is not tall in stature, but you wouldn’t know it from watching him operate on the mound. The Dodgers’ ace oozes confidence during his starts, and the production always seems to follow.

The $325 million man has been L.A.’s most consistent and reliable starting pitcher throughout 2025 — both the regular season and the postseason. And if there was ever a time when the Dodgers needed him to be great, it was Saturday in Game 2 of the World Series. Not only because L.A. needed length after Blake Snell’s rocky outing in Game 1 but also because heading back to Dodger Stadium down 0-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays wasn’t an option anyone wanted to consider.

And it was clear from the start Saturday that Yamamoto was up to the task.

“[Game 1], that's a big loss,” Yamamoto said after L.A.’s 5-1 victory that tied the series. “Needless to say, today's game, we had to win. So that's just how I treated this game.”

Early in Game 2, it looked like things would go similarly to the opener, as the Blue Jays made the Dodgers’ right-hander throw 23 pitches in the first inning. However, after back-to-back hits leading off, Yamamoto escaped that first frame without any runs crossing the plate.

“Every time he takes the ball, you can see he has confidence,” shortstop Mookie Betts said. “Even in the first inning there, you can still feel he had a little confidence.”

As it turned out, the difference between Snell and Yamamoto in these two outings was that the latter got only stronger as the game progressed. After Yamamoto allowed his first and only run of the game on an Alejandro Kirk sacrifice fly in the third inning, the 27-year-old really went to work. Yamamoto needed just six pitches to get through the fourth inning and eight pitches to get through the fifth.

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“My pitching style is just to keep attacking the zone,” Yamamoto said of his game plan against Toronto. “So every pitch I throw, I focus on getting to the strike zone. So there's not much adjustment in the game.”

As he continued to mow down the Blue Jays with efficiency, his manager’s confidence in him also grew.

“After that first inning, I was thinking six [innings],” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame. “I felt that he would find a way to get through six. It’s an aggressive swinging team. I thought the stuff was good. … And then the pitch count kinda stayed where it needed to stay. And then for me, I didn’t see anything fall off, as far as the delivery and the execution.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Filthy 77mph Yo Yo Curve. 😷 pic.twitter.com/dHpKDtpLGg

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 26, 2025

Toronto didn’t swing and miss much against Snell in Game 1, but that changed against Yamamoto. He got 17 whiffs, including six on his splitter, five on his curveball and three on his four-seamer. The combination of efficiency and swing-and-miss stuff made the Japanese star downright dangerous. And after solo homers from Will Smith and Max Muncy gave him some breathing room in the seventh inning, Yamamoto took full advantage. While his approach was about efficiency early in the start, as the game got later, he showed more dominance.

“That’s what we needed,” Smith said. “We needed a great start out of somebody, and Yoshi stepped up today.”

By the eighth inning, Yamamoto was really showing his might. He struck out the side to record his fifth of six straight 1-2-3 innings. He got Andrés Giménez and George Springer swinging on a 76.6-mph curveball and a 95.8-mph fastball, respectively, and finished the frame by getting Nathan Lukes looking on a perfectly located fastball.

“As he was going along in the fifth, sixth, seventh inning, I was just trying to think about how poised and in control of the game, what he's trying to do,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said afterward. “It's four or five pitches, and it feels like he could hit a flea with it. He can throw it wherever he wants. Sets up hitters. Understands hitters' swings. He's just incredible.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, K'ing the Side in the 8th. pic.twitter.com/6nVLS65kXT

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 26, 2025

Just like in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers, Yamamoto didn’t need any help from the bullpen Saturday. This game was his to finish, and in the ninth inning, he’d go through the heart of the Blue Jays’ lineup to do it.

After getting Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to ground out and Kirk to line out, Yamamoto got Daulton Varsho on a pop out to third base, finishing his second consecutive complete game. He’s the first pitcher to throw complete games in back-to-back starts since Curt Schilling did it in the 2001 postseason for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Yamamoto is just the fourth pitcher in postseason history to retire 20 or more batters in a game — which he did consecutively to conclude Game 2 — and the first since Don Larsen’s iconic perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

“I'm very happy and proud of the fact that I was able to bring a big contribution and give a chance for the team to win,” he said after his performance.

“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, [splitter] was in and out of the zone. It was a really good performance by him.”

The series now moves to L.A. tied 1-1, with Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani scheduled to take the ball for the Dodgers in Games 3 and 4. After getting a wake-up call from Toronto in Game 1, the Dodgers seem to have gotten the message that they’ll need their A-game to win this series.

Make no mistake: There was significant pressure on Yamamoto coming into Game 2. But it didn’t faze him, as he seemed cool, calm and collected while going toe-to-toe with Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman. And in the end, he went above and beyond what his counterpart was able to do.

Yamamoto is in just his second year in L.A. and hasn’t played in nearly as many postseason games as many of his teammates. You wouldn’t know it from his postseason record. He now has a sparkling 1.57 ERA in four starts this postseason and a 2.47 ERA in eight career playoff starts. He has already proven that there’s no moment too big for him.

“He's pitched in huge ballgames in Japan. He's pitched in the WBC. Players that have the weight of a country on their shoulders — that's pressure,” Roberts said. “I just feel that part of his DNA is to just perform at a high level in big spots and control his heartbeat and just continue to make pitches.

“He could have gone another 30, 40 pitches tonight.”

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Source: “AOL Sports”