Distance, again! Yamamoto in rare company with 2nd straight CG

TORONTO -- Yoshinobu Yamamoto is kickin' it old school.

As the Dodgers look to become the first team in a quarter century to repeat as champions, Yamamoto is turning back the clock in his own way by doing things on the mound that haven't been seen in nearly as long.

Yamamoto went the distance for a second straight start, twirling nine innings of one-run ball on 105 pitches as the Dodgers evened the World Series at a game apiece with a 5-1 win over the Blue Jays on Saturday night at Rogers Centre.

He is the first pitcher with back-to-back complete games in the postseason since the D-backs' Curt Schilling in 2001, and the first Dodger since Orel Hershiser in 1988. The most recent pitcher with multiple complete games in the postseason was the Giants' Madison Bumgarner in 2014.

"I think that you look at Yamamoto," manager Dave Roberts said, "it's kind of the throwback in the sense of when he starts a game, he expects to finish it. And he'll go as long as I let him."

Yamamoto not only prevented the Dodgers from needing to reach into their mixed bag of a 'pen, but he also put his team in a much more favorable position now that the Series is tied 1-1. In the history of best-of-seven postgame series with the current 2-3-2 format, teams that have taken a 2-1 lead at home in Game 3 have prevailed in the series 29 of 48 times (60.4%).

Given his career accolades in Nippon Professional Baseball, international competition and the Majors, Yamamoto was the right man on the mound for the Dodgers in a must-win game.

"Players that have the weight of a country on their shoulders, that's pressure," Roberts said. "So I just feel that part of his DNA is to just perform at a high level in big spots and control his heartbeat and just continue to make pitches."

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After how the night started, Roberts had just been hoping to get six innings out of his starter. Yamamoto labored some, needing 23 pitches to complete the first inning. He continued to work around traffic through the third, when he allowed his lone run on an Alejandro Kirk sacrifice fly.

"To be honest," Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda, "I was not thinking I can complete the game because my pitch count racked up kind of quickly."

Yamamoto was at 46 pitches through three innings, but from then on, he finished off hitters with efficiency, only needing more than four pitches to record an out three times in his final six innings. He had been splitter-heavy at the beginning, but he gained feel for the rest of his arsenal and mixed his six-pitch repertoire to perfection.

"He just felt like he could go with anything," pitching coach Mark Prior said. "The ability to get deep into games, go through lineups four times. We talk about it with relievers. He gives them different looks, even though it's the same guy. And that's important."

By the time Yamamoto was at 93 pitches through eight innings, it was a "no-brainer" for Roberts to send him back out for the ninth.

"Man, it's hard to do," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. "I get why Doc let him go. He was that good."

Yamamoto was untouchable to close out his gem, setting down his final 20 batters in order. Yamamoto is the fourth pitcher to retire at least 20 straight batters to finish a postseason game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, joining Don Larsen (27, 1956 World Series Game 5), Grover Cleveland Alexander (21, 1926 World Series Game 2) and Dutch Leonard (20, 1915 World Series Game 3).

It was no easy feat to dominate this Blue Jays lineup, who have grinded out great pitchers this postseason, including Blake Snell in Game 1. But Yamamoto trusted in his preparation and his in-game process, and the results followed.

"They can swing it. They move the ball. They don’t strike out a ton. … They do everything pretty well," said Will Smith, who broke a one-run tie in the seventh with a solo homer. "Yoshi was just better today. We needed that from him."

Yamamoto is the first Dodgers pitcher with eight-plus strikeouts and zero walks in a World Series complete game since Sandy Koufax’s Game 4 clincher in 1963. Yamamoto has emerged as quite the big-game pitcher in his two years with L.A., but his feats are even more special when they place him in the company of franchise greats such as Koufax and Hershiser.

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As pitching has evolved, many around the Dodgers weren't sure they would see back-to-back complete games in this era of baseball, let alone on the biggest stage possible.

From the rarity of what he has accomplished to the untapped potential they believe is still in there, the Dodgers are at a loss to describe what Yamamoto has been able to give them this postseason.

"It’s amazing," Freddie Freeman said. "There’s not enough adjectives, superlatives, anything you wanna say."