TORONTO — After an unexpected but brief one-day slump, the $400 million Dodgers rediscovered their usual winning formula: Brilliant starting pitching, the long ball, stellar defense and limited to no bullpen usage.
The best team money could buy showed why they are favored to repeat as World Series champions in a tidy 5-1 victory a day after they were so thoroughly outplayed folks questioned their readiness or rust. Anyway, the Dodgers were back to their usual selves in Game 2.
Dodgers star starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto — whose $325M deal is the largest in pitching history (at least until Tarik Skubal signs) — pitched exactly like we’d expect one day after co-ace Blake Snell struggled in a major upset. Yamamoto won a pitchers’ duel with Jays counterpart Kevin Gausman, whose streak of 17 straight Dodgers retired was interrupted by Will Smith’s tie-breaking home run in the seventh inning and topped by Yamamoto’s game-finishing streak of 20 straight outs.
Yamamoto remarkably completed his second straight game in a near repeat of his NLCS performance in Milwaukee, even with the same 5-1 final. It was 105 pitches of mastery.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
