{"id":240831,"date":"2025-10-26T06:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T06:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/240831\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T06:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T06:46:09","slug":"not-enough-adjectives-how-yoshinobu-yamamoto-amazed-his-dodgers-teammates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/240831\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Not Enough Adjectives’: How Yoshinobu Yamamoto Amazed His Dodgers Teammates"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Thirty minutes after pitching the game of his life, and after completing all of his media obligations, Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> finally sat down at his locker and let out a big sigh. Then, he got back to work.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t a difficult burden. Yamamoto was just cleaning out his locker in the Rogers Centre visitor\u2019s clubhouse, so that he could join his teammates on the Dodgers<\/a> team bus. But packing up his many intricate belongings looked more laborious for Yamamoto than the task of navigating the Blue Jays<\/a> lineup in Game 2 of a World Series<\/a> matchup. He made that look easy. Rushing to put his accouterments into separate Ziploc bags before neatly packing them into his duffel? Now that was tough stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was just as challenging for Yamamoto\u2019s teammates to describe the awe and admiration they felt watching the 27-year-old pitch a four-hit complete game in the Dodgers\u2019 5-1 win against the Blue Jays on Saturday. It\u2019s not just that he went the distance, whiffing eight batters and walking none, to avoid putting the Dodgers in a 0-2 hole in the World Series. His magnificent 105-pitch performance came on the heels of yet another complete game in his last start in the NL Championship Series against the Brewers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to \u2014 there’s not enough adjectives, superlatives, anything you want to say,” first baseman Freddie Freeman<\/a> said. “There’s just not. To do it in back-to-back starts, and what, in less than 110 pitches. It\u2019s amazing.”<\/p>\n

Freeman was particularly astonished at how efficient Yamamoto was after the Blue Jays put traffic on the basepaths in the early innings. The right-hander allowed the leadoff man to reach base in the first, second, and third inning. After three frames, he was at 46 pitches. He only needed 59 pitches across the next six innings to finish the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Somehow, Yamamoto got better as he went along.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“To be honest, I was not thinking I can 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.”<\/p>\n

Dodgers starter Blake Snell<\/a> told me Yamamoto\u2019s dominant outing looked like the stuff of video games. Yamamoto became the first pitcher to pitch back-to-back complete games in the postseason since Curt Schilling fired three consecutive for the Diamondbacks<\/a> in 2001. The last time a pitcher threw a complete game in the LCS and World Series in the same year was the Florida Marlins\u2019 Josh Beckett in 2003 (NLCS Game 5 vs. the Cubs<\/a>, World Series Game 6 vs. the Yankees<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though it\u2019s rare to be as controlling as Yamamoto was in a World Series outing, veteran pitcher Clayton Kershaw<\/a> viewed it as a positive sign that baseball is trending back toward the era of dominant starting pitchers again. Kershaw, who has racked up 25 career complete games since he made his major-league debut in 2008, can do without the uptick in bullpen games. Yamamoto\u2019s performance was right up his alley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The way he throws the baseball is perfect,” Kershaw said. “No wasted movement. So efficient. And then he can do everything. He came here, fastball, curveball, splitter, basically. And now he\u2019s throwing sinkers, cutters, sliders. So he\u2019s got six pitches with command that he uses really well. It was amazing. It was really impressive.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yamamoto\u2019s only real blemish of the night was an uncharacteristic wild pitch that hit George Springer<\/a> near his wrist to lead off the third inning. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. moved Springer up to third on a single to left, and Alejandro Kirk<\/a> scored him on a sacrifice fly. It tied the game at 1-1. But Yamamoto instantly dialed back in and retired the next 20 consecutive batters to finish the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He hit Springer, but other than that, he was pretty flawless,” Kershaw said. “Once he started getting the leadoff man out, he was perfect.”<\/p>\n

‘One of the best pitching performances I\u2019ve seen\u2019 \u2013\u00a0Jeter, A-Rod & Papi react to Yamamoto\u2019s complete game \"'One<\/a> <\/p>\n

The Blue Jays were completely off-kilter. If you only tuned in to watch Game 2 of the World Series, you would have a hard time believing Toronto\u2019s offense sported the lowest strikeout rate in the league this season, including in the playoffs. Yamamoto induced nine strikeouts against the Jays, which was more than double the amount of times they whiffed in Game 1. The Jays\u2019 sound offensive approach was shattered with an elite Yamamoto on the mound.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yamamoto is now 3-1 with a 1.57 ERA this postseason, allowing seven runs (five earned) on 17 hits with four walks, 26 strikeouts, a 0.73 WHIP and a .165 opponents\u2019 batting average. The Japanese flamethrower is the first player to throw multiple complete games in a single postseason since Madison Bumgarner went the distance in the 2014 Wild Card Game and Game 5 of the 2014 World Series for San Francisco.<\/p>\n

As electric as he was, the Dodgers are hoping they won\u2019t see him on the mound again this October. That would mean the reigning champions wrapped up the World Series quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Yoshi turned it on when he needed to,” Freeman said. “It was all him, all the way.”<\/p>\n

Deesha Thosar<\/a>\u00a0covers Major League Baseball<\/a> as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets<\/a> as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at\u00a0@DeeshaThosar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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