Dodgers even World Series behind dominant pitching performance from Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Los Angeles gets a complete-game performance from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who allowed just four base-runners all night. It's his second straight postseason complete game and it evens the series, 1-1, heading back to Los Angeles for Game 3.

As Yoshinobu Yamamoto begins the ninth with a 5-1 lead, he’s attempting to become the first pitcher to throw a complete game in the World Series since 2015. The last was the Royals’ Johnny Cueto in Game 2 against the Mets, a 7-1 victory. The Giants’ Madison Bumgarner had the only other complete game since 2019, pitching a shutout against the Royals in the 2014 World Series.

In the top of the ninth the Dodgers got Max Muncy on base with a leadoff walk but couldn't advance him following three straight outs.

Toronto has one final opportunity to stave off defeat going into the bottom of the ninth.

In the bottom of the eighth, Yamamoto never showed signs of fatigue while striking out the side and protecting the Dodgers' 5-1 lead entering the final frame. Yamamoto's line so far: 93 pitches and eight strikeouts, without a walk.

The Dodgers have struck out only seven times in total tonight, but Teoscar Hernández is responsible for four of them, with the last stranding the bases loaded in the seventh.

Hernández is the 10th player this century to strike out four times in a World Series game. One of the previous nine was George Springer, who did so for the Astros against the Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2017 World Series. The last to do it was the Rangers’ Evan Carter in 2023, though he did manage a double in five at-bats that night.

Since replacing Louis Varland, Toronto pitcher Jeff Hoffman has seen two runs scored in his first three hitters, after Will Smith grounded into a fielder's choice that scored Shohei Ohtani. With the run, Los Angeles took a 5-1 lead here in the top of the eighth.

In the top of the eight inning Los Angeles, nursing a 3-1 lead, got Andy Pages and Shohei Ohtani on first and second base with just one out against Toronto's Louis Varland, who had taken over for Kevin Gausman. Varland then loaded the bases after walking Mookie Betts, who to that point was 0-for-3.

Toronto pulled Varland, instead replacing him with Jeff Hoffman to face Freddie Freeman. But that plan quickly went awry when Hoffman threw a wild pitch that scored Pages.

Coming off a complete-game 5-1 victory over the Phillies in the NLCS, Yoshinobu Yamamoto would seem to have a chance to go nine again in the World Series. He’s retired 14 straight through the seventh and has thrown just 79 pitches. Twenty-three of those came in the first, so he’s averaging barely nine pitches an inning in the six frames since.

If Yamamoto finishes the game, he’d join Justin Verlander as the only active pitchers with multiple complete games in the postseason. Verlander pitched a shutout against the A’s in Game 5 of the 2012 ALDS and beat the Yankees 2-1 in Game 2 of the 2017 ALCS.

The Dodgers kept their starter in for the top of the seventh inning and Yamamoto delivered by keeping Toronto scoreless for the fourth consecutive inning. He's thrown 78 pitches and allowed one earned run, without a walk, all night. If the Dodgers can reduce their reliance on their often-shaky bullpen, that's usually a sign of success for L.A.

The Dodgers saw 45 fastballs from Kevin Gausman tonight before Will Smith put one into the stands with one out in the seventh. Max Muncy quickly followed with another, also off a fastball (actually Gausman’s third hardest of the night at 95.9 mph). Before that, the Dodgers had gone 0-for-14 against it, with two of those being strikeouts and the remaining 12 being balls in play.

Gausman also had 17 called strikes with the fastball. The Dodgers’ only previous two hits were Freddie Freeman’s third-innnig double off a splitter and Smith’s fourth-inning single off a slider.

Still in the top of the seventh, Max Muncy homers to left field, his shot traveling 351 feet, to add to the Dodgers' lead, 3-1.

That ends the night for Toronto's Kevin Gausman, who had been fantastic up until this inning, at one point retiring 17 straight batters.

After dumping 11 runs on Los Angeles to win Game 1, Toronto has just one through six innings after going three up, three down in the bottom of the sixth just now. Los Angeles starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto has allowed four hits and one earned run while striking out five so far. He's needed only 71 pitches.

The top of the sixth again saw the Dodgers unable to generate any offense, with Andy Pages (line out), Shohei Ohtani (foul out) and Mookie Betts (foul out) all getting out after just six combined pitches from Toronto's Kevin Gausman.

The hooks come quickly in the postseason, but with Kevin Gausman having retired 13 in a row since the first, there doesn’t seem like much reason for the Jays to be especially aggressive here. Gausman has thrown just 59 pitches through five, and he’s typically excelled in the back half of his outings this year. The league is hitting only .217 with a .649 OPS against him the third time through the lineup. He has a .174 average against on pitches 51-75 in his outings and .205 from pitch 76 onwards.

Five innings into Game 2 and it's still 1-1, with both Gausman and Yamamoto meeting the minimum three batters. Toronto has four hits overall so far, to the Dodgers' two, but it's meant little on the scoreboard.

The Dodgers get three Blue Jays hitters to go quietly in a row, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto needed only six pitches to get out of the bottom of the fourth inning. We're still tied, 1-1.

In the top of the fourth inning, the Dodgers couldn’t get a man on base after Freddie Freeman flew out to center, Will Smith flied out to right and Teoscar Hernandez struck out. It’s still a 1-1 tie.

Even though he homered in the seventh inning, Shohei Ohtani came away from Game 1 of the World Series with the most negative cWPA among Dodgers hitters. That stat, which measures how much the outcome of each at-bat alters a team’s chances of winning the World Series, put Ohtani at -3.67% on Friday, since he struck out twice and grounded out with the bases loaded while the game was still close.

That he homered with the Dodgers down 11-2 simply didn’t count for much.

Now in Game 2, Ohtani has flied out and popped out in his first two at-bats. He has six homers in 47 at-bats overall in the postseason, but just four other hits and a total of 19 strikeouts. It’s unfair to say that he’s struggling when he’s slugging over .600, but the Dodgers need him to start some rallies and keep them going when he has the chance.

In the bottom of the third, a sacrifice fly by Alejandro Kirk scores George Springer and ties the game for Toronto at 1-1. Springer got on base after being hit by a pitch as the leadoff man.

Yamamoto then got the next hitter to ground out, ending the inning. Tie game!

In the top of the third, Toronto's Kevin Gausman faced the top of the Dodgers lineup for the second time and didn't allow a baserunner, getting Andy Pages, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts all out without a ball leaving the infield.

After the Dodgers went three batters up and three batters down in the top of the second, the Blue Jays got one runner on before three straight outs. Yamamoto is now up to three strikeouts.

Pitching on a whopping 10 days’ rest after throwing just once in the NLCS, Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a little extra on his pitches early. He topped out at 97.9 mph in the first and averaged 97.0 mph, which is 1.6 mph than his season mark. His curveball and splitter were up by similar amounts, and he wound up getting five missed swings on his 23 pitches while escaping a first-and-third jam.

Toronto couldn't score in the bottom of the first, despite putting runners on first and third without any outs. Yamamoto struck out two in the frame.

Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out Vladimir Guererro Jr., perhaps the best hitter on the best-hitting team in the playoffs, after a seven-pitch at-bat with runners at the corners. An 80-mph curveball finally struck out Guererro for the first out.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a deep enough arsenal that he doesn’t have to always utilize his best pitch to every batter he faces, and he might want to avoid turning to his trusty splitter against Addison Barger tonight. Barger went 7-for-20 with three homers and two doubles against splitters this season. That amounts to a 1.450 OPS.

Kevin Gausman’s fastball velocity varies more from start to start than most pitchers, and it was worth wondering if he’d be at 100% tonight after starting last Friday and pitching in relief on Monday. The early results are encouraging; his first nine fastballs averaged 95.1 mph, which is better than his season mark of 94.5 mph. Interestingly, his two sliders have come in at 85.4 and 85.2 mph, which is two mph higher than his season average.

Of course, it hasn’t stopped him from going down 1-0 already.

Will Smith's single to center scored Freddie Freeman, who had doubled one batter before, and the Dodgers take an early, 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Shohei Ohtani, after going 1-for-1 in Game 1, flied out to left field for the game's first out. Anytime the Blue Jays can limit his damage, it's a small victory for Toronto.

Shohei Ohtani is facing off with Kevin Gausman to lead things off.

According to the analytics site Codify, Toronto fouled off 39 pitches in 8 innings last night, an all-time World Series record.

The Blue Jays sent 12 men to the plate against Blake Snell, Emmet Sheehan and Anthony Banda in the sixth inning of the World Series.

Their nine runs is the third most runs ever scored in an inning during the World Series. The 1929 Athletics overcame an 8-0 deficit in scoring 10 runs in the eighth inning of Game 4 in what ended a 10-8 victory. They then finished off the Cubs in Game 5. The 1968 Tigers also won the World Series after their 10-run inning in Game 6.

The sixth inning — which ended in 9 runs being scored for Toronto — was broken wide open on Addison Barger's pinch-hit grand slam. It was the first such feat in World Series history.

The Japanese right-hander has been stellar this postseason as the Dodgers' No. 2 starter behind Blake Snell. Over 19.2 innings, he has a 1.83 ERA with 18 strikeouts and just four walks.

Yamamoto threw nine innings against the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS, allowing just 1 run and 3 hits over nine innings.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Daulton Varsho all started Game 1 on Friday night, and in doing so made history. It was the first time three sons of former players started for one team in the World Series.

Will Freddie Freeman make it two in a row?

The 34-year-old Gausman was 10-11 this season with an ERA of 3.59 and WHIP of 1.06. He's been particularly strong this postseason, allowing just four earned runs in 18 innings.