Yamamoto outduels Gausman in Game 2 as Dodgers beat Blue Jays

2 swings of the flutter.

That’s all it took to turn over what was defining up to be a classic pitchers’ affaire d'honneur into a two-run Los Angeles Dodgers lead that might as well have been 10.

Will Smith and Max Muncy both hit solo home runs in the seventh inning against Toronto Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman, flipping a 1-1 tie into a two-run Los Angeles lead. The Dodgers added two more runs for a 5-1 win to even the World Series at one game apiece on Saturday at Rogers Centre.

Remarkably, Los Angeles starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw his second straight post-season complete game to earn the win.

“That was a great performance by him,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

“It’s hard to do. I get why [Dodgers manager Dave Roberts] let him go. He was that good. The baseball fan, they appreciate that. You have to appreciate a complete game. You never know when someone’s gonna have it.”

It marked the first time since Curt Schilling in 2001 that a pitcher accomplished the feat of back-to-back complete games in the post-season, and the first time since 2015 that a pitcher tossed a complete game in the World Series.

Yamamoto’s final line: nine innings, four hits, one earned run, and eight strikeouts. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman matched Yamamoto through six innings, with both allowing just one run. At one point, they combined to retire 27 straight batters — the equivalent of a perfect game.

But Gausman blinked, Yamamoto never did, and that was the difference.

“Felt good, got in a good rhythm. I thought [catcher Alejandro Kirk] called a great game. We executed pitches up in the zone, down in the zone when we needed to. Tried to keep them off balance,” Gausman said.

“Two pitches to two really good hitters, that was the difference.”

Gausman had retired 17 straight batters prior to Smith’s go-ahead shot. On a 3-2 offering, he put a fastball on the inside corner that the Dodgers catcher turned on and sent into the right-field seats.

Two batters later, Muncy deposited another fastball into right field, and that was all she wrote for Gausman, who completed six and two-thirds innings, giving up three runs on four hits while striking out six.

“[Gausman] threw one too many fastballs [but] he was amazing tonight,” Dodgers outfielder Enrique Hernández told Sportsnet in a post-game interview. “His command was spot-on. He had every pitch working for him. He pitched a great game, and fortunately for us, we had Yoshinobu on the mound matching zeroes and we were able to score more than them.”

Despite what was a quality start on paper, Gausman said he was “not happy” with his outing.

“Coulda pitched better, obviously the guy on the other side did. It’s one of those games. It’s baseball. He’s on a good streak right now. We really had our work cut out tonight, but onto the next,” he said.

Indeed, Blue Jays batters were in tough against Yamamoto, whose performance will become the stuff of legend if the Dodgers go on to win their second straight World Series.

Blue Jays manager calls Game 2 of World Series a 'classic pitchers' duel'

Yamamoto, 26, signed a 12-year, $325 million US contract ahead of the 2024 off-season before ever throwing an MLB pitch.

Year 1 was a bit shaky as he battled injuries. But there’s been little to quibble with in his second year — his regular-season ERA was a shiny 2.49 — and he's had two consecutive complete games in the post-season.

“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,” Roberts said. "He could have went another 30, 40 pitches tonight."

Yamamoto struggled some in the first inning, throwing 23 pitches but escaped a jam when the Blue Jays had men on first and third with none out.

He allowed his lone run of the game in the third inning when a sacrifice fly from Kirk scored George Springer, who’d reached base on a hit by pitch that appeared to affect him later in the game.

From there, Yamamoto was nearly perfect.

“I just reset my mind. … After I gave up a run, the game was still tied, so I just kept going,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter.

Roberts said it was a “no-brainer” to let Yamamoto complete the game.

“I just didn’t see anything fall off as far as his delivery or execution,” he said.

In the other dugout, Gausman was nearly as effective. Just not effective enough.

“I thought Kev matched him pitch for pitch, really. They both had low pitch counts. It was kind of a classic pitchers’ duel and they made a couple more swings,” Schneider said.

Those two swings have turned this World Series into a best-of-five, beginning with Game 3 on Monday in Los Angeles. Now, though, the Dodgers have home-field advantage.

As for the Blue Jays? They would be well-served to end this series in California before likely having to face Yamamoto again in Game 6.

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