Yoshinobu Yamamoto carried Los Angeles in the clutch on Saturday.
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw is a future Hall of Famer, but his biggest blemish is a lack of playoff success. The three-time NL Cy Young Award-winner has a career 2.53 regular-season ERA against a 4.63 postseason mark.
Luckily for the Dodgers, ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto doesn’t have that issue. The 27-year-old sported a 1.83 playoff ERA this season entering Saturday’s World Series Game 2 outing against the Toronto Blue Jays, and he followed that by allowing one run over nine innings in the 5-1 victory.
It was Yamamoto’s second consecutive complete game, making him the first pitcher to do that in the playoffs since Curt Schilling for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001, per Talkin’ Baseball. The second-year hurler is also the first player with two complete games in a single postseason since Madison Bumgarner for the San Francisco Giants in 2014, per MLB.
Kershaw described Yamamoto’s performance postgame, via NBC LA’s Michael J. Duarte.
“It was amazing,” Kershaw stated. “I think the most amazing part was him getting out of that first inning. First and third, nobody out with Vladdy [Vladimir Guerrero Jr.] up, and somehow manages to pitch himself out of that. And then keeping his pitch count down, we had an error in the second inning. You had traffic, guys on base first three innings, got out of all that.
“He did everything tonight, he was amazing. his team [Toronto] is a really good hitting team, so it was amazing.”
Clayton Kershaw on Yoshinobu Yamamoto throwing back-to-back complete games in the postseason pic.twitter.com/BZc2pdxOkP
Yoshinobu Yamamoto Takes Torch From Clayton Kershaw
Kershaw’s praise of Yamamoto isn’t just a player complimenting his teammate, but it’s a symbolic moment for Los Angeles. The club legend gave flowers to the new star on his way out.
Kershaw announced on Sep. 18 that he will retire after this season, via the Dodgers’ social media. The 37-year-old will end his career with one of the best regular-season resumes ever, but also a spotty playoff record outside of the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, when he notched a 2.93 ERA over five starts. Los Angeles won the World Series that year.
Conversely, Yamamoto is clinical in both the regular season and postseason. The 5-foot-10, 176-pounder has a 2.66 regular-season ERA since entering MLB in 2024 and had a 2.82 playoff ERA before Saturday. If he keeps his current pace, he’ll lap Kershaw’s resume over the next few seasons.
The Dodgers are now tied 1-1 with the Blue Jays in the World Series. Up next is Game 3 in Los Angeles on Monday night, which will start at 8:00 p.m. ET on Fox.
