TORONTO — Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s arms were so tired, he needed help lifting the World Series MVP trophy.
Hardly a surprise, considering how much he pitched in the final two games of this seven-game classic.
Yamamoto capped one of the best pitching performances in World Series history with 2⅔ scoreless innings to end the clincher. That came one day after throwing 96 pitches in the Dodgers’ Game 6 win, and he also pitched a four-hitter in Game 2 to help them repeat as champions in a fantastic series against the Toronto Blue Jays.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Yamamoto’s heavy workload. “I’m kind of crazy for sending him back out there. But I just felt he was the best option.”
Hard to argue there. The 27-year-old Japanese ace pitched out of a jam in the ninth inning, leaving the bases loaded and the score tied at 4-4. After cruising through the 10th, he worked around Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s leadoff double in the 11th to preserve a 5-4 lead and lock up the Dodgers’ second consecutive championship and their third in six years.
“Yamamoto is the GOAT!” Roberts shouted moments before the Dodgers hoisted the World Series trophy.
Still, even Yamamoto wasn’t sure he’d be able to get the job done in Game 7.
“Before I went in, to be honest, I was not really sure if I could pitch up there to my best ability,” he said through a translator. “But as I started getting warmed up, because I started making a little bit of an adjustment, then I started thinking I can go in and do my job.”
Yamamoto is the fourth pitcher to win Games 6 and 7 of the same World Series, matching Randy Johnson in 2001, Harry Brecheen in 1946 and Ray Kremer in 1925. He and Johnson are the only pitchers since 1969 to win three games in one World Series.
Yamamoto’s Game 7 cap is being sent to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
“That was incredible,” said catcher Will Smith, who hit the Dodgers’ tiebreaking homer in the 11th. “You know, I talked to him yesterday. I was like, ‘Hey, if you can give us one we’re going to win.’ He gave us three. That was special. He’ll have a few months off. I know he’s going to need it, but I’m just happy for him. That was awesome.”
Signed from Japan to a $325 million, 12-year contract before last season, Yamamoto was 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA against the Toronto Blue Jays. The 27-year-old struck out 15 and walked two over 17⅔ innings, allowing two runs and 10 hits.
“He’s one of the best arms in the game,” Toronto’s Addison Barger said. “He did a great job. Kind of freaky that he came in and pitched today after yesterday. I don’t know what they’re doing over there, how he did that without his arm falling off.”
Blue Jays slugger George Springer said Yamamoto’s deep arsenal of pitches is a key part of what makes him so tough.
“He’s elite,” Springer said. “There’s no other way to describe it. He’s elite. He can control six or seven different types of spin and obviously that split is hard to hit.”
The right-hander’s Game 2 gem was his second consecutive complete game of the postseason. He retired the final 20 batters in a 5-1 Dodgers victory.
That came after a three-hitter against Milwaukee in the National League Championship Series, the first postseason complete game in eight years.
No pitcher had gone the distance in the Fall Classic since Kansas City’s Johnny Cueto fired a two-hitter against the New York Mets in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series.
Yamamoto was not quite as sharp in Game 6, allowing one run and five hits in six innings as the Dodgers won, 3-1, to force Game 7.
Including a victory in Game 2 of last year’s World Series against the New York Yankees, Yamamoto is 4-0 with a 1.13 ERA in four Fall Classic appearances.
Arizona ace Curt Schilling was the last pitcher to throw consecutive complete games in the postseason, tossing three in a row in the 2001 NL Division Series and NLCS.
Orel Hershiser had been the last Dodgers pitcher with a solo Series effort, in Games 2 and 5 against Oakland in 1988. Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax pitched two World Series complete games each in 1963 and 1965.
Yamamoto pitched 12 complete games in his last three seasons with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Pacific League before joining the Dodgers. In Game 6 of the 2023 Japan Series with the Buffaloes facing elimination, he struck out a Japan Series record 14 batters and threw 138 pitches in a CG victory, forcing a Game 7.
