World Series: Yoshinobu Yamamoto Shines as Dodgers Force Game 7

Facing elimination with another defeat in the World Series, the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers ended a two-game losing streak on Friday night, October 31.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched six dominant innings in Game 6 to earn his second win of the Fall Classic, and the Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 at Rogers Centre.

"There was pressure, of course, but I just gave my all while pitching, hoping to come away with a good result," Yamamoto said, according to Kyodo News. "I think I did well."

The winner-take-all Game 7 is on Saturday, November 1 (Sunday 9:10 AM JST). Toronto is vying for its first World Series title since 1993.

Dodgers Grab the Early Lead

Los Angeles scored all of its runs in the third inning off Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman. Tommy Edman smacked a one-out double over leaping Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr on Gausman's first pitch. Gausman then retired the Dodgers' No 9 hitter, Miguel Rojas, for the second out, which came on a called third strike. It was Gausman's seventh strikeout of the game.

The Toronto starter's split-finger fastball was working quite effectively against LA.

World Series — *Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman in action against the Dodgers in the first inning. (John E Sokolowski/IMAGN IMAGES/via REUTERS)*

But Blue Jays manager John Schneider opted to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani with two outs and a runner in scoring position. (Two innings earlier, Ohtani, who finished 1-for-3 with a walk, struck out on a 2-2 splitter.)

Will Smith followed and crushed a double into the left-field corner, scoring Edman. Then Freddie Freeman walked to load the bases.

The cleanup hitter, Mookie Betts, added another big hit, a two-run single to left. Mired in a 3-for-23 slump during the World Series before Game 6, Betts connected on a 1-2 fastball, lining a double off the left-field wall. Ohtani and Smith scored to make it 3-0.

"It felt great to come through for the boys," Betts said after the game, MLB.com reported. "Obviously, I would love to play well for myself. But that’s kind of irrelevant. I want to play well for the boys."

Teoscar Hernandez struck out to end the top of the third.

On the Decision to Intentionally Walk Ohtani

After the game, Schneider spoke about the decision to intentionally walk Ohtani early in the game.

"If there is an obvious chance, take the bat out of his hands, yeah, we're going to do it," the Blue Jays manager told a news conference. "Again, man, they have really good hitters up and down their lineup, so you're damned if you do, damned if you don't sometimes. You're always playing with fire with the caliber of Will Smith, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.

"So you take your chances ― you know you're putting some extra traffic on there, but you take your chances with Kev."

A Clutch Pitching Performance by Yamamoto

In the bottom of the third, Addison Barger led off with a double to left off Yamamoto. With two outs, George Springer, who was back in the lineup after missing the previous two games with an injury, ripped a single to right-center to cut the lead to 3-1.

Yamamoto escaped a jam in the sixth. With two on and two out, he fanned Daulton Varsho on a 1-2 splitter to end the scoring threat.

As he walked back to the dugout, Yamamoto nodded his head several times, an indication he was pleased with what he had just done. It was his sixth strikeout of the night.

"I was checking how they react to my pitches today," Yamamoto said later at a news conference. "Then, when I was not sure what to throw, I was leaning on the splitter today."

As it turned out, Yamamoto's outing was done. He allowed five hits and the aforementioned run, walked one, struck out six and threw 96 pitches (63 for strikes).

"In my mind, I was ready for another inning," Yamamoto told reporters after the game. "But my job, the most important part, was to protect our lead and then pass it to the guys coming behind me."

Wrobleski Replaces Yamamoto in the 7th

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts decided to bring in left-handed reliever Justin Wrobleski to pitch the seventh. Wrobleski struck out Alejandro Kirk, the first hitter he faced. Barger then hit a high bouncer to second baseman Rojas, who made a terrific barehanded catch and a quick throw to first for the second out.

Following an Ernie Clement double, Andres Gimenez struck out to end the seventh.

Roberts commented after the game on Yamamoto's performance and the pitching change in the seventh.

"He was good. I thought Yamamoto was very good, actually," Roberts said.

The manager added, "Yamamoto did his job for the night, in my opinion."

Thus, a chance for a third consecutive postseason complete game wasn't possible for Yamamoto.

Sasaki Works Out of a Jam

Roki Sasaki was summoned from the bullpen to replace Wrobleski in the eighth. Springer drilled a single under the glove of Dodgers first baseman Freeman for a leadoff hit. And with one out, Guerrero, who is tied with Ohtani for the most World Series home runs (eight), walked.

Still, Sasaki maintained his poise and got a boost from his teammates on defense.

With two men on base, Bo Bichette hit a pop fly that Dodgers shortstop Betts caught in foul territory. It was a difficult play, and Betts covered a lot of ground to reach the ball, running and then making the catch in front of the first row of seats.

Varsho hit a groundout to end the inning.

Blue Jays reliever Chris Bassitt worked a 1-2-3 ninth, retiring Max Muncy, Kike Hernandez and Edman.

A Wild Ending in the 9th

That brought Sasaki back to the mound with a two-run lead, needing three outs to seal the win. He promptly hit Kirk with a 0-2 pitch on the hand. Barger followed with a ground-rule double to left-center ― the ball got wedged at the bottom of the wall.

Roberts took Sasaki out of the game.

Now it was Tyler Glasnow's turn to pitch. (In his last outing, he started and pitched 4⅔ innings, giving up five hits and four runs — two earned — in the 18-inning marathon in Game 3 on Monday.)

With a pair of runners in scoring position, Clement hit a first-pitch pop-up to Freeman.

Gimenez lined out to Kike Hernandez in left. The veteran outfielder made a terrific throw on the run to Rojas, who caught it on a short hop and doubled up Barger, who failed to tag up, at second.

"It's such a tweener," Schneider said of the short fly ball. "He (Hernandez) made a good play, good throw. Good play by Rojas too. Wild, wild way to finish it, for sure."

Looking Ahead to Game 7

Roberts said Ohtani, who was the Game 4 starter, could pitch in the series finale, either as the starter or as a reliever. No plans were finalized at the end of Friday night's postgame news conference.

As a reporter noted in the media session, Ohtani hasn't pitched on three days' rest this season. That would be the case if he pitches on Saturday.

"This is Game 7, so there's a lot of things that people haven't done," Roberts remarked, "and you've just got to trust your players and try to win a baseball game."

The skipper, who was born in Okinawa, also spoke about the excitement and the magnitude of Game 7.

"I don't think that the pressure, the moment's going to be too big for us," he told reporters. "We've got to go out there and win one baseball game. [And] we've done that all year. Everyone's bought in. So I don't know how the game's going to play out. But as far as kind of the moment, winning a game, I couldn't be more excited to get to sleep and wake up to play a baseball game tomorrow."

Schneider told reporters that he's also fired up about Game 7.

"See you tomorrow," Schneider said. "It's going to be electric here. These guys, it's business as usual. Although it's coming down to one game. These guys are really good at kind of just turning the page. That will take a while to kind of unpack. That's a wild ending. I love the way we played. Yamamoto was really good again. Had our chances with guys on base kind of as the game went on. But we're going to be ready to play tomorrow. Everyone's going to be ready to play."