LOS ANGELES — Yoshinobu Yamamoto emerged from Shohei Ohtani’s large shadow on Saturday and stepped to the forefront to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a commanding lead in the World Series.
Yamamoto gave up one hit into the seventh inning, Teoscar Hernandez and Freddie Freeman hit back-to-back home runs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers delivered a 4-2 victory over the visiting New York Yankees on Saturday to take a 2-0 World Series lead.
“I was trying to focus on facing one hitter at a time,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “So I was able to throw the strike when I wanted, and I was able to (concentrate on) the hitters one at a time.”
Despite the victory, there was a pall over Dodger Stadium when Ohtani left after the seventh inning with a partial left shoulder dislocation, according to manager Dave Roberts.
“The scene (was) very concerning,” Roberts said. “Obviously when you get any one of your players that goes down, it’s concerning. But after kind of the range of motion, the strength test, I felt much better about it.”
Ohtani is expected to undergo an MRI by Sunday afternoon and his status moving forward in the series remains unknown.
Tommy Edman also hit a home run while Yamamoto (2-0) allowed one run and two walks with four strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings, helping the Dodgers move two wins away from their first World Series title since 2020 and their first after a full regular season since 1988.
After the Dodgers added Ohtani on a 10-year, $700 million heavily deferred contract, they added Yamamoto on a 12-year, $325 million deal, making him the highest paid pitcher ever. Yamamoto’s first MLB season included a three-month absence because of a shoulder injury.
“Watching from center field, it was fun to see how much his stuff was moving,” Edman said of Yamamoto. “Really did a good job keeping them off balance and just did a great job of pitching.”
Dodgers right-hander Blake Treinen gave up an RBI single in the ninth to Giancarlo Stanton and departed with two outs and the bases loaded. Left-hander Alex Vesia entered and got pinch hitter Jose Trevino to fly out to center field for his first save of the postseason.
“I was pretty calm,” said Vesia, who was not on the NLCS roster with an injury to his ribs. “I knew what I was going into. I’ve come in with bases loaded before. Two outs, for myself it was making one pitch and thankfully tonight we got the one pitch.”
Juan Soto hit a home run for the Yankees, while left-hander Carlos Rodon (1-2) gave up four runs on six hits, including three home runs, over 3 1/3 innings. Aaron Judge went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Game 2 and is 1-for-9 in the series with six strikeouts.
“I definitely chased some pitches out of the zone; I need to lock into my zone,” Judge said. “At the end, we showed some fight and we have to take that into Game 3.”
The series shifts to New York for the next three contests, if the series is extended to five games. Game 3 is on Monday, followed by Game 4 on Tuesday and Game 5, if necessary, would be on Wednesday.
“It’s October. Nothing is going to be easy,” Freeman said. “… We’re up two games and it’s a good start.”
The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when the switch-hitting Edman hit a home run into the left field corner against Rodon while batting from the right side. It was his second home run of the postseason to go along with 13 RBIs for the National League Championship Series MVP.
Soto tied it 1-1 in the third with a blast into the right field corner against Yamamoto, his fourth of the postseason.
The Dodgers moved in front 3-1 in the bottom of the third on a two-run home run from Hernandez, his third of these playoffs, while Freeman followed with a drive to right field in nearly the same spot he hit his grand slam that ended Game 1 on Friday.
It was just the 19th time a team has hit back-to-back home runs in the World Series with the only other occurrence by the Dodgers coming in Game 5 in 1981 against the Yankees by Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager.
The Yankees had just one hit heading into the ninth when Soto singled off the right field wall, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single off the third base bag by Stanton. Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled and Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Treinen struck out Anthony Volpe before Vesia got the last out on his first pitch.
“In a game where we really got shut down there in the middle innings, our compete to the very end was really good,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We gave ourselves a chance to get right back in it and even win that game off a very good reliever. I loved the at-bats there at the end, the compete, the fight.”
–Doug Padilla, Field Level Media
