TORONTO — It is, in fact, possible to tame the Blue Jays lineup.
It just takes a masterful performance from an ace like Yoshinobu Yamamoto to send the World Series to Los Angeles tied 1-1 because of it.
A night after the pesky Blue Jays lineup got to Blake Snell and blew open the game against the Dodgers bullpen, Yamamoto took matters into his own hands and never let a reliever touch the ball.
Yamamoto retired the final 20 batters he faced to finish off a complete-game gem — his second in a row — sending the Dodgers to a 5-1 win over the Blue Jays in Game 2 on Saturday night at Rogers Centre.
“I’ve been playing a long time and haven’t ever seen anything like this,” Mookie Betts said.
That is because nothing like it had happened since 2001, when Curt Schilling threw three straight complete games in the postseason.
But after going the distance against the Brewers in Game 2 of the NLCS, Yamamoto became the first pitcher in 24 years to throw back-to-back complete games in the postseason, in an era when the leash on starting pitchers has gotten progressively shorter.
“It was one of those things he said before the series: Losing is not an option. And he had that look tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Making this one more impressive was that it came 24 hours after the Blue Jays had scored 11 runs on 14 hits in Game 1. Yamamoto shut them down, scattering four hits while striking out eight and walking none across 105 pitches.
“My pitching style is just keep attacking the zone,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “To be honest, I was not thinking I can complete the game because my pitch count racked up kind of quickly. But I’m very happy I completed the game.”
Will Smith and Max Muncy provided the difference-making swings — a pair of solo home runs off Kevin Gausman in the seventh inning that broke a 1-1 tie — to ensure Yamamoto’s effort would not go to waste.
The Dodgers arrived in the World Series having gone 9-1 through the NL wild-card series, NLDS and NLCS, leaning on their dominant rotation with little in the way of resistance. But after the Blue Jays came out swinging in Game 1, Yamamoto’s masterpiece evened the series headed back to Chavez Ravine.
“I think coming into this environment, to split is huge,” Betts said. “I think what we were doing before was kind of unheard of. This seems a little more normal.
“Just throwing punches and making them feel it. Those homers definitely helped a lot. Obviously we know they’re not going to give up, they’re going to stand back up and throw punches back. But Yoshi was able to dodge all the punches. He did amazing.”
Gausman had retired 17 straight batters before Smith took him deep for a 404-foot blast that put the Dodgers ahead 2-1 in the seventh. One out later, Muncy matched Smith, sending a home run of his own into the Blue Jays bullpen for the 3-1 lead.
Just like that, Yamamoto had all the support he needed, and he only got stronger as the night went on.
After the Dodgers scratched across two more runs in the top of the eighth for some extra breathing room, Yamamoto responded by striking out the side in the bottom of the frame — against the team that does not strike out.
“I love feeling that the starter is the best option to go six, seven, eight, and what Yamamoto is doing, nine innings,” Roberts said. “And you got to be efficient, you got to have the weapons to be able to take down a lineup three times, four times, whatever it is, and you got to want to do it. So he is a throwback player.”
After the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on Smith’s RBI single, the Blue Jays’ best chance for a big inning had come in the bottom of the frame. George Springer led off with a double and Nathan Lukes singled to put runners on the corners with no outs. But Yamamoto wiggled out of trouble by retiring the next three batters — two on strikeouts — to strand both runners while throwing 23 pitches.
The 27-year-old righty did not need more than 14 pitches to get through any of the remaining eight innings, the only run against him coming on Alejandro Kirk’s sacrifice fly in the third.
“We had to win,” Yamamoto said.
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