MILWAUKEE — The Dodgers are up 2–0 because the rotation is cooking and Yoshinobu Yamamoto just authored a complete game that felt like a clinic. Teammates didn’t sound stunned. They sounded confirmed. This is how they drew it up. Put an ace on the mound every night and let the lineup breathe.
Clayton Kershaw shrugged at the idea that this is surprising. “All of them are throwing the ball amazing, but we kind of knew that,” he said. “Since they’ve been healthy, they’ve all been doing that. It’s just pretty amazing how Snell did it and couldn’t pitch much better than that, and then what Yama did today was amazing.” He pointed to the depth of the toolbox. “With him and Snell, it’s multiple pitches wherever they want to in the zone. You can’t cover his split, curveball, sinker, cutter, four-seam. You just can’t cover all that. Same with Blake last night. You can’t cover his changeup, slider, curveball, fastball when he’s putting it wherever he wants to.”
Kershaw said the command never leaked. “They’re able to maintain it throughout the game and their command doesn’t suffer,” he said. “They don’t miss a spot.” He gave the simple postseason rule that never goes out of style. “Good pitching beats good hitting any day of the week,” he said. “You’re seeing that right now.” On the feeling of being up 2–0 he stayed practical. “We’ve done our job so far,” he said. “Winning on the road is huge. Try to get a little sleep before this day game and be ready to go.” He even turned it into a teaching tape for his son. “Yoshi’s mechanics are how you teach it,” Kershaw said. “It’s beautiful. I tell Charlie to watch him.”
Catcher Will Smith called the last 18 innings “probably the two best back-to-back games pitched ever that I’ve seen.” He walked through Yamamoto’s night from ten feet away. “He’s just executing pitches,” Smith said. “Getting ahead of guys, getting early soft contact, punching guys out with two strikes. Super efficient.” The splitter carried chapters of the script, but not the whole thing. “Some innings it wasn’t biting as much and we did some other things,” he said. “Some innings it was, so we leaned on it. He had everything going. Curveball was good. Fastball and cutter were pretty good. He was mixing, throwing strikes, and putting guys away.”
Smith thought the response to the very first swing said plenty. “Got punched in the mouth, first pitch of the game,” he said. “To get 27 outs after that, that was impressive. That was domination.” He also liked the bigger series picture. “It’s huge to go back home 2–0,” he said. “We’ve been able to kind of hide our guys and see their guys. Each look we get at them is big for the next situation.”
Kiké Hernández smiled and said he was not shocked. “I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not,” he said. “We’ve all seen it all year long. When he’s on, he’s in total control. He fills up the strike zone. He’s got a lot of different pitches he can throw for strikes, a lot he can throw ball to strike or strike to ball. Keeps them off balance.” The composure after that leadoff blast stood out. “The most impressive part was keeping his composure after the first pitch homer,” Hernández said. “He didn’t let that affect him. He kept us in the game.”
Kiké tied the offense and the pitching plan together. “It took us a little bit to start scoring again, but he kept us in the game until we were able to tack on little by little,” he said. “Starting pitching has been huge the entire postseason. Luckily we were able to score a few runs for him tonight.” He tipped his cap to the approach against Freddy Peralta. “He’s a really good pitcher,” Hernández said. “For us it was a matter of trying to elevate his pitch count to get to the bullpen. In a best of seven, being able to see their pitchers is very important and taxing that bullpen as much as we can.”
Back to the rotation, and the theme was unanimous. Kershaw called it “good pitching,” then added that the staff’s mix and command are what separate it right now. Smith called Yamamoto’s nine “really special,” and stacked it next to Snell’s eight as the best tandem he has seen. Hernández called Yoshi “in cruise control” once the Dodgers nudged ahead.
Strip away the noise and the message is simple. “Good players win,” Kershaw said. “Good pitching beats good hitting.” Smith nodded toward Game 3. “Ready to go and try to go up three nothing on them.” And Kiké gave the bottom line that travels. “It’s been all about our starting pitching thus far.”
Have you subscribed to the Bleed Los Podcast YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows & promotions, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
