Toronto cruised to an 11-4 victory in Game 1 to go up 1-0 in the series.
Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman celebrates a double against the Toronto Blue Jays during the first inning in Game 2 of baseball's World Series. Brynn Anderson / The Associated Press
The Dodgers get three Blue Jays hitters to go quietly in a row, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto needed only six pitches to get out of the bottom of the fourth inning. We’re still tied, 1-1.
In the top of the fourth inning, the Dodgers couldn’t get a man on base after Freddie Freeman flew out to center, Will Smith flied out to right and Teoscar Hernandez struck out. It’s still a 1-1 tie.
Even though he homered in the seventh inning, Shohei Ohtani came away from Game 1 of the World Series with the most negative cWPA among Dodgers hitters. That stat, which measures how much the outcome of each at-bat alters a team’s chances of winning the World Series, put Ohtani at -3.67% on Friday, since he struck out twice and grounded out with the bases loaded while the game was still close.
That he homered with the Dodgers down 11-2 simply didn’t count for much.
Now in Game 2, Ohtani has flied out and popped out in his first two at-bats. He has six homers in 47 at-bats overall in the postseason, but just four other hits and a total of 19 strikeouts. It’s unfair to say that he’s struggling when he’s slugging over .600, but the Dodgers need him to start some rallies and keep them going when he has the chance.
In the bottom of the third, a sacrifice fly by Alejandro Kirk scores George Springer and ties the game for Toronto at 1-1. Springer got on base after being hit by a pitch as the leadoff man.
Yamamoto then got the next hitter to ground out, ending the inning. Tie game!
In the top of the third, Toronto’s Kevin Gausman faced the top of the Dodgers lineup for the second time and didn’t allow a baserunner, getting Andy Pages, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts all out without a ball leaving the infield.
After the Dodgers went three batters up and three batters down in the top of the second, the Blue Jays got one runner on before three straight outs. Yamamoto is now up to three strikeouts.
Pitching on a whopping 10 days’ rest after throwing just once in the NLCS, Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a little extra on his pitches early. He topped out at 97.9 mph in the first and averaged 97.0 mph, which is 1.6 mph than his season mark. His curveball and splitter were up by similar amounts, and he wound up getting five missed swings on his 23 pitches while escaping a first-and-third jam.
Toronto couldn’t score in the bottom of the first, despite putting runners on first and third without any outs. Yamamoto struck out two in the frame.
Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out Vladimir Guererro Jr., perhaps the best hitter on the best-hitting team in the playoffs, after a seven-pitch at-bat with runners at the corners. An 80-mph curveball finally struck out Guererro for the first out.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a deep enough arsenal that he doesn’t have to always utilize his best pitch to every batter he faces, and he might want to avoid turning to his trusty splitter against Addison Barger tonight. Barger went 7-for-20 with three homers and two doubles against splitters this season. That amounts to a 1.450 OPS.
Kevin Gausman’s fastball velocity varies more from start to start than most pitchers, and it was worth wondering if he’d be at 100% tonight after starting last Friday and pitching in relief on Monday. The early results are encouraging; his first nine fastballs averaged 95.1 mph, which is better than his season mark of 94.5 mph. Interestingly, his two sliders have come in at 85.4 and 85.2 mph, which is two mph higher than his season average.
Of course, it hasn’t stopped him from going down 1-0 already.
Will Smith’s single to center scored Freddie Freeman, who had doubled one batter before, and the Dodgers take an early, 1-0 lead in the first inning.
Shohei Ohtani, after going 1-for-1 in Game 1, flied out to left field for the game’s first out. Anytime the Blue Jays can limit his damage, it’s a small victory for Toronto.
Shohei Ohtani is facing off with Kevin Gausman to lead things off.
According to the analytics site Codify, Toronto fouled off 39 pitches in 8 innings last night, an all-time World Series record.
The Blue Jays sent 12 men to the plate against Blake Snell, Emmet Sheehan and Anthony Banda in the sixth inning of the World Series.
Their nine runs is the third most runs ever scored in an inning during the World Series. The 1929 Athletics overcame an 8-0 deficit in scoring 10 runs in the eighth inning of Game 4 in what ended a 10-8 victory. They then finished off the Cubs in Game 5. The 1968 Tigers also won the World Series after their 10-run inning in Game 6.
The sixth inning — which ended in 9 runs being scored for Toronto — was broken wide open on Addison Barger’s pinch-hit grand slam. It was the first such feat in World Series history.
The Japanese right-hander has been stellar this postseason as the Dodgers’ No. 2 starter behind Blake Snell. Over 19.2 innings, he has a 1.83 ERA with 18 strikeouts and just four walks.
Yamamoto threw nine innings against the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS, allowing just 1 run and 3 hits over nine innings.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Daulton Varsho all started Game 1 on Friday night, and in doing so made history. It was the first time three sons of former players started for one team in the World Series.
Will Freddie Freeman make it two in a row?
The 34-year-old Gausman was 10-11 this season with an ERA of 3.59 and WHIP of 1.06. He’s been particularly strong this postseason, allowing just four earned runs in 18 innings.
Andrew Greif is a sports reporter for NBC News Digital.
Greg Rosenstein is the sports editor for NBC News Digital.