LOS ANGELES — For the second straight night, it came down to a bases-loaded, last-at-bat situation for a World Series underdog. No late innings players this time.
Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Alex Vecia induced New York Yankees pinch hitter Jose Trevino to fly out to center field to preserve a 4-2 victory Saturday night, the second in a row for the Dodgers, who lead 2-0. Seven series with Game 3 on Monday in New York.
Unlike Yankees reliever Nestor Cortez, who gave up a walk-off grand slam to Freddie Freeman in Game 1, Vecia is coming off an injury that caused him to miss the NLCS. But he was rusty with one inning of work Friday, then was called upon to relieve Blake Treinan, who loaded the bases on two singles and a hit-by-pitch.
Like Freeman, Trevino went on a first-pitch hunt, landing 345 feet under the ball and into the glove of center fielder Tommy Edman.
The 52,725 in attendance at Dodger Stadium breathed a sigh of relief — as did the guy on the mound.
“It all happened so fast,” Vecia said later. “With the bases loaded and I had two outs, a 1-0 start was all the hitter’s advantage, so I wanted to hit my strength and try to get a pitch going.”
The inner-half, four-seam fastball did the trick, highlighting a night of excellent pitching for the usually offense-driven Dodgers, who may have lost star designated hitter Shohei Ohtani to a shoulder injury.
Coming into the game, the Dodgers have scored at least six runs in six of their past seven postseason games, and they are seventh in eight after Edman, Teoscar Hernandez and Freeman homered in the second and third games. innings respectively. But the Dodgers never scored again. Thanks to starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw his best game since beating the Yankees in early June.
“That was an incredible start for Yamamoto,” Trienen said. “It’s definitely going to go up as one of the best starts this postseason.”
Yamamoto went 6⅓ innings, giving up just one hit — a solo home run to Juan Soto — while walking two and striking out four, including Aaron Judge. His five-pitch combination was as good as it’s been in a while, considering the right-hander spent most of August and September recovering from an arm injury. Some of his outings, even in the postseason, resembled spring appearances. He went three innings in Game 1 of the NLDS, then five in Game 5 of that series, then returned for 4⅓ innings in Game 4 of the NLCS. He hasn’t thrown more than 73 pitches since late September. That changed in Game 2 of the World Series when he threw 86 no-stress pitches with plenty of movement.
“By the time I got out of IL, I was already pretty good — pretty close to where I was before,” Yamamoto said through a team translator. “After that, when I started pitching in a game, I think I was fine.”
The Yankees were off balance all night. Yamamoto threw 42 fastballs, 21 curves, 11 splitters, eight sliders and four cutters. Fifty-four of his 86 went for strikes.
“He’s really good,” Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “He’s electric. His split seems to go three different ways. He throws strikes. He’s calm. I can see why he’s had so much success in Japan and so much success here this year.”
Manager Aaron Boon added: “It was difficult to be patient with him when he attacked and progressed.”
Yamamoto signed a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers, but took some time off to start his best rookie season of the year. His ERA would eventually dip below 3.00 in June, after holding the Yankees for more than seven innings, shortly before he went on the injured list because of a rotator-cuff issue. When he returned in September, the Dodgers took things slowly. They are now benefiting from it.
“There’s not a lot of stress in the game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Yeah, he hasn’t been in the seventh inning since that Yankee game [in June]. I felt we had a good building base.”
Yamamoto pitched in the seventh and was now in line to pitch Game 6, if necessary, on an extra day of rest. The performance came amid clouds of uncertainty surrounding the Dodgers’ best player. Ohtani will have an MRI Sunday to determine the severity of the shoulder injury — and the Dodgers hope he can win even if he misses time.
“Oh, yeah, a thousand percent,” Teoscar Hernandez said. “We’ve been struggling all year with a lot of injuries. First was the starter, then Mookie and then Freddie. And hopefully Ohtani isn’t like that.”
Between Jack Flaherty’s performance in Game 1 and Yamamoto’s performance in Game 2, Hernandez may be right about his team’s chances if Ohtani can’t play. They may be missing some offense, but suddenly the Dodgers have more starting pitching than anyone realizes. For most of the postseason, their storyline on the mound has revolved around their bullpen. That could change come the most important time of the playoffs.
“The last couple of nights everyone said we didn’t have the starting arms to make a run at the World Series. [but] “What Jake did yesterday and Yamamoto in his first World Series game, it’s very impressive,” Trienen said.
