<\/p>\n
MILWAUKEE–Relying on an old-school pitching strategy has the\u00a0defending World Series champion\u00a0Los Angeles Dodgers two wins from returning to the Fall Classic.<\/p>\n
As long as their star-studded rotation can continue working deep into games, they don\u2019t need to worry about their inconsistent bullpen.<\/p>\n
Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a three-hitter for the first postseason complete game in eight years as the Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-1 on Tuesday to extend their lead in the National League Championship Series. Yamamoto\u2019s gem in Game 2 came one night after two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell allowed one hit over eight shutout innings for a\u00a02-1 victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said before this postseason started, our starting pitching was going to be what carried us,\u201d said Max Muncy, who set a\u00a0Dodgers record\u00a0by hitting his 14th career postseason homer. \u201cAnd so far it\u2019s been exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a\u00a0dramatically different approach\u00a0than the one the Dodgers took last year, when starting pitchers worked six innings in only two of their 16 postseason games. They have seven quality starts in eight playoff games this year, and their starters own a 1.54 postseason ERA.<\/p>\n
That stellar pitching has the Dodgers closing in on another World Series berth even with the bullpen struggling and three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani going 2 for 25 at the plate over his last six games.<\/p>\n
After winning nine of their last 11 regular-season games, the Dodgers are 7-1 in the postseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur entire team is playing the best baseball we\u2019ve played all year,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cThe focus, the concentration level is at the highest, and we\u2019re peaking at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez\u00a0also homered to help the Dodgers leave Milwaukee with a 2-0 advantage in the best-of-seven series, which shifts to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Thursday. Yamamoto allowed a home run to Jackson Chourio on the first of his 111 pitches \u2014 81 strikes \u2014 but shut down the Brewers the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
The $325 million right-hander struck out seven and walked one during his first complete game in two major league seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reset my mind (after Chourio\u2019s homer) and then I just focused on executing my own pitches,\u201d Yamamoto said through an interpreter.<\/p>\n
The previous postseason starter to go the distance was\u00a0Justin Verlander\u00a0when he tossed a five-hitter with 13 strikeouts for Houston against the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the 2017 ALCS on Oct. 14, 2017 \u2014 eight years ago to the day.<\/p>\n
Yamamoto\u2019s complete game was the first for Los Angeles since Gavin Stone\u2019s gem on June 26 last year. The last Dodgers pitcher to throw a complete game in the postseason was Jose Lima against St. Louis in Game 3 of their 2004 NL Division Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI established my rhythm and then I dictated the tempo based off the game,\u201d Yamamoto said. \u201cSo that was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the first time since 1970 that both LCS road teams started 2-0. The\u00a0Seattle Mariners\u00a0own a 2-0 lead over Toronto in the ALCS heading into Game 3 on Wednesday in Seattle.<\/p>\n
Twenty-four of the previous 27 teams that took the first two games on the road in a best-of-seven series with a 2-3-2 format have gone on to win. The three teams to come back after losing Games 1 and 2 at home all came in World Series: the 1985 Kansas City Royals against the St. Louis Cardinals, the 1986 New York Mets against the Boston Red Sox, and the 1996 New York Yankees against the Atlanta Braves.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys might have us counted out,\u201d Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. \u201cAnd I understand that 90% of the teams that have been in this situation don\u2019t win the series. But this team has been counted out a lot this year. And I think there\u2019s some fight left in them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brewers pulled out all the stops Tuesday as they tried to avoid that 2-0 deficit. Former slugger Eric Thames got on the field to exhort fans just before the game and\u00a0popped open his jersey\u00a0to reveal his bare chest.<\/p>\n
Chourio\u00a0then delighted a sellout crowd with his fourth career postseason homer, tying Orlando Arcia and Prince Fielder for the Brewers record. It was the fifth leadoff homer of this postseason, tying an MLB mark originally set in 2007.<\/p>\n
That seemed like a foreboding start for Yamamoto, who lasted just two-thirds of an inning in an\u00a08-1 loss\u00a0the previous time he pitched in Milwaukee. But he bounced back and silenced the Brewers the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
The NL Central champions, who led the majors with 97 wins during the regular season, have five hits in the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to play better,\u201d said slugger Christian Yelich, who is 0 for 13 in his last four games. \u201cIt\u2019s not an ideal start to the series, by any means. Just have to continue to battle and find a way to get the offense going. I\u2019ve got to be better. We\u2019ve got to be better. It\u2019s just facts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Los Angeles became the first team to have consecutive postseason starts of at least eight innings in the same series since San Francisco\u2019s Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum did it in Games 4 and 5 of the 2010 World Series against Texas.<\/p>\n
After Chourio\u2019s homer, the Dodgers wasted no time coming back against Brewers ace Freddy Peralta.<\/p>\n
Hern\u00e1ndez, whose\u00a0baserunning mistake\u00a0contributed to the Brewers\u2019 unusual\u00a08-6-2 double play\u00a0in Game 1, sent a 3-2 curve over the left-field wall for his fourth homer of this postseason. One out later, Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez singled and scored on Andy Pages\u2019 double.<\/p>\n
Pages had been 1 for 27 in the postseason before delivering his shot into the right-field corner.<\/p>\n
Muncy extended the lead to 3-1 with his two-out homer in the sixth, which came on Peralta\u2019s 97th and final pitch. The Dodgers added two more runs on RBI singles by Shohei Ohtani in the seventh and Tommy Edman in the eighth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MILWAUKEE–Relying on an old-school pitching strategy has the\u00a0defending World Series champion\u00a0Los Angeles Dodgers two wins from returning to the Fall Classic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":107769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n