Entering the Dodgers’ postseason run this fall, right-handed ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto didn’t have a single complete game on his résumé.
He now has two. And they’ve come in his last two outings, nonetheless.
To follow up his nine-inning gem in Los Angeles’s NLCS win on Oct. 14, Yamamoto dialed up another complete game Saturday night to lead the Dodgers to a 5–1 victory over the Blue Jays in Game 2 of the World Series. In nine innings of work, Yamamoto allowed just one run on four hits with eight strikeouts. He only got better as the game went on, striking out the side in the eighth inning and retiring 20 consecutive hitters to end the game.
In four starts this postseason, Yamamoto has logged a 1.57 ERA and 0.73 WHIP with 26 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings. He’s just the second player in MLB history to notch his first two complete games in the playoffs, joining Josh Beckett in 2003.
“He’s pitched in big ball games in Japan. He’s pitched in the [World Baseball Classic]. Players who have the weight of a country on their shoulders, that’s pressure,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Yamamoto after Game 2. “I just feel that part of his DNA is to just perform at a high level in big spots. Control his heart beat and just continue to make pitches. He could’ve went another 30, 40 pitches tonight.”
Yamamoto became the first pitcher to throw a complete game in the World Series since Royals righthander Johnny Cueto in 2015. Only 11 pitchers have done so in a World Series game dating back to 1990, and just six pitchers have gone the distance this century.
Pitchers to throw complete games in the World Series (since 1990)
He’s also the first pitcher to log back-to-back complete games in a single postseason since Diamondbacks ace Curt Schilling in 2001. Schilling actually posted three straight complete games in Arizona’s ‘01 playoff run, going the distance in two games in the NLDS and another in the NLCS.
Pitchers to throw back-to-back complete games in a single postseason (since 1990)
If that was Yamamoto’s final start of the year, what a way to go out. But if it wasn’t, and the Dodgers are planning to call his number again later in the World Series, it’s only fair to expect greatness from the 27-year-old ace.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as All the MLB History Yoshinobu Yamamoto Made With Complete Game in Dodgers’ Game 2 Win.