TORONTO — As Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto came set on the Rogers Centre mound Tuesday, he didn’t let his mind drift to the last time he gazed from that exact spot.
He didn’t think of the snap of Alejandro Kirk’s bat as it splintered, or the fluidity of Mookie Betts’s movement as he started the double play, or the joy on Freddie Freeman’s face as his arms flew in the air.
He didn’t think of the relief as a back-and-forth World Series Game 7 finally ended, or the mayhem that ensued around him as he tilted his head back and smiled.
Yamamoto insisted he didn’t think about the final pitch of last year’s World Series during his start Tuesday. And in the Dodgers’ 4-1 win against the Blue Jays, his focus showed.
“No matter how important, how big the game is, I just treat every game as the same,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter the day before. “And in just normal games, I just pretend that that’s the biggest game.”
Tuesday was, by all measures, just a normal game. And Yamamoto held the Blue Jays to one run through six-plus innings.
His tear began from the first pitch, a slider spotted on the outside edge that got a whiff from Toronto’s George Springer. Yamamoto went on to strike out the side.
If Kyle Tucker had been a little more sure-footed on a line drive over his head to lead off the second inning, Yamamoto, who gave up one run in six-plus innings Tuesday, might have had a perfect-game bid going into the sixth.
It was a tough angle, slowing Tucker for a few steps. And that was enough to put the ball just out of reach, allowing Jesús Sánchez to jog to second base for a double.
Two batters later, Tucker made a sliding catch on a short fly ball that threatened to touch down in no-man’s land. Then Yamamoto wrapped up the inning with his fourth strikeout of the game.
That eight-pitch battle ended with a cutter at the top of the zone. Nathan Lukes watched it and flipped his bat toward the Blue Jays’ dugout. It was a called third strike; Lukes didn’t argue.
“First six innings or so, he kind of had anything he wanted,” catcher Will Smith said. “Any pitch, he was executing. Just has command of all five, six pitches … mixing speeds, mixing locations.”
Including that strikeout, Yamamoto retired 12 straight batters. In the midst of that stretch, he didn’t let the ball leave the infield for two straight innings.
The next time he faced Sánchez, Yamamoto took a different tact, throwing mostly pitches that moved down or away from the left-handed hitter. According to Statcast, the only time Yamamoto returned to the cutter — the pitch Sánchez drove over Tucker’s head — he located it off the plate.
Yamamoto then came back over the plate with a curveball. Sánchez lunged at it, as the pitch fell out of the strike zone. Strike three. Sánchez grimaced.
Sánchez wasn’t the only one; Yamamoto’s stuff was quite literally keeping the Blue Jays off balance.
Toronto’s Andrés Giménez spun halfway around and crumpled to the ground on a check swing in the sixth inning. But Giménez recovered and got his hands inside a cutter to drop a soft line drive into shallow right field for a single.
Yamamoto then labored through the sixth inning. He gave up an RBI double to George Springer and a walk before escaping without further damage.
He returned for the seventh and appeared to strike out Kazuma Okamoto to open the inning. But Okamoto made a successful ABS challenge.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider yells at plate umpire Dan Merzel after being ejected in the fifth inning Tuesday.
(Cole Burston / Getty Images)
Okamoto lined a double to right-center field. Then Ernie Clement placed a bunt single up the third-base line to move Okamoto to third. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts walked out to take the ball from Yamamoto.
“I was off from the stretch,” Yamamoto said. “And then that’s something I need to clean up for the next outing.”
Left-hander Alex Vesia relieved Yamamoto and got out of the jam. Then Blake Treinen and closer Edwin Díaz shut down the Blue Jays the rest of the way.
After Tuesday’s scoreless performance, the Dodgers’ bullpen ranked seventh in the majors in ERA (2.70).
“I think guys have just come in really prepared this year,” Vesia said. “And having Díaz in the ninth is great. Definitely gives us confidence of, sixth inning, seventh inning, eighth inning, that’s our time. [If] we could put up zeros like we’ve been doing, we’re going to give Díaz a good spot to go out and get a save.”
On the other end of that equation was Yamamoto (2.50 ERA), who has pitched at least six innings in each of his three starts this season.
“He got those guys in a swing-mode kind of situation, where they didn’t want to get [behind in] counts,” Roberts said. “You saw they were aggressive, which helped the efficiency. He threw the baseball really well.”
Miguel Rojas scratched
The Dodgers scratched veteran middle infielder Miguel Rojas from the starting lineup before the game so that he could attend to a family matter. Hyeseong Kim replaced him at shortstop.
Rojas was still with the team as of Tuesday night, Roberts said. The Dodgers did not plan to call up anyone and are prepared to play shorthanded if need be.