Dodgers Recap: Yama to the rescue!

TORONTO — Wow. He did it again. In what could only be called a “must-win” game for the Dodgers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivered in the biggest way possible on the biggest stage imaginable. The star of the game went a full nine innings, allowing only one run on an early sacrifice fly. He outdueled the Jays’ Kevin Gausman for seven innings, and when Gausman finally blinked, Yamamoto was still standing. It was a fantastic performance that the Dodgers needed in the worst way. Offensively, the game turned on a Will Smith homer in the seventh, which provided the go-ahead run, and then Max Muncy followed it up with another. With a couple of well-played tack-on runs in the eight, the Dodgers cruised to a 5-1 win in Game 2 and tied up the series going home.

Just as they had on Friday night, the Dodgers struck first in Game 2. It started to look like Jays starter Kevin Gausman would have an easy time of it in the first inning, as he quickly retired Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts both on flyouts to the opposite field. However, Freddie Freeman dug in and went to battle. After an eight-pitch at-bat, Freddie reached down and ripped a low pitch into the right field corner for a two-out double. Will Smith, coming into the game riding a five-game hitting streak didn’t waste any time in making it six. He ripped a single up the middle and the Dodgers were on the board with a 1-0 lead before took the field.

The leadoff man got on base in each of the first three innings, but on the first two occasions, Yamamoto was able to pitch around the traffic. In the first, a couple of strikeouts did the trick, and he managed to work around a leadoff runner in the second causes by a pretty embarrassing misplay of a popup that had a 0% hit probability. But the ball dropped just wide of the glove of Freddie Freeman, who over-ran the play. Ugh. Still, it only cost Yamamoto two extra pitches, so it wasn’t so horrible.

However, it finally caught up to the Dodgers in the third. Yoshi hit George Springer with a pitch to start the inning. Usually, I’d say it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, but in this case it cost the Dodgers. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. banged a long single off the left field fence to move Springer to third, and he scored on a sac fly to center from Alejandro Kirk. Three innings in, we had a new ball game, 1-1.

The middle innings went by in a flash (except for that inexplicable Jonas Brothers concert thrown in the middle). Gausman and Yamamoto were mowing through their respective opponents like a mower through infield grass. It was especially important for Yamamoto, who recovered very nicely from his 23-pitch first inning to have his pitch count well in order by the bottom of the sixth.

The top of the seventh was the pivot point of the entire game, and it came from two very welcome sources: Will Smith and Max Muncy. Though the Dodgers had no traffic on the bags in the inning, Smith and Muncy both hit solo homers to give the Dodgers a 3-1 advantage. Smith decided to help his starter out by ripping a Gausman pitch DEEP, DEEP, DEEP to left, upper tank shot to break the tie. Then, one hitter later, the Funky Muncy came to the party, going oppo taco for the Dodgers second jack of the inning. That did it for Gausman. He came off the mound and angrily tossed away his chewing gum, potentially on the hook for the loss after looking so dominant for much of the game.

In the top of the eighth, the Dodgers got some much needed insurance. Andy Pages got a hit (no, really), which was followed up by a Shohei single. A Mookie Betts walk loaded the bases and then Pages scampered home when new reliever Jeff Hoffman spiked his first pitch to Freddie Freeman. Freeman was intentionally walked to set up a double play, and they thought they got it on a groundball to Andres Gimenez at short, but the Jays could not convert it, and Shohei Ohtani scored the Dodgers’ fifth run of the game.

With a four-run lead, Yamamoto could smell blood in the water. He retired the top of the order in a 1-2-3 eighth, and then put the finishing touches on a masterpiece by doing the same in the ninth. In all, the ace retired the last 20 Jays hitters in order. It was an epic, legendary performance. And just like that, Yama has turned the Dodgers chances of winning this thing into a better-than-even bet.

The Dodgers and Jays travel across the country with an off-day tomorrow before the series reconvenes on Monday night at Dodger Stadium. Same start time, 5:08 PDT. It’s going to be Tyler Glasnow looking to give the Dodgers their first lead in the series as he locks horns with one-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer (unless he has another case of dead arm). I like our odds. See you at the Ravine. We gotta bring the noise, Dodger fans. Let’s do this!!!

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