Technically, Game 2 of the World Series started out as a pitchers’ duel. But in reality, the Dodgers’ star-studded lineup was letting Kevin Gausman off the hook.
For six innings Saturday night, the Toronto Blue Jays’ right-hander cruised against the Dodgers’ recently slumping lineup. Despite filling up the zone with a flurry of fastballs in hittable locations, the Dodgers’ bats remained silent, recording 17 consecutive outs after an RBI single from Will Smith in the first inning.
By the seventh inning, it was starting to feel like a race against the clock. Even with Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitching masterfully for the Blue Jays, the score remained tied. This year’s Dodgers team, however, has shown the ability to elevate their game when frustrations creep in. In a game-deciding sequence in the seventh inning, they came through once again.
In the span of three batters, Will Smith and Max Muncy did what the rest of the offense couldn’t in the six innings prior. They squared up a pair of fastballs Gausman left over the plate and made the veteran right-hander pay with two towering solo home runs.
At long last, it awoke the Dodgers’ lineup from its recent slumber, leading to another two-run rally in the eighth inning. Coupled with a second consecutive complete game performance from Yamamoto, who retired his final 20 batters in a one-run masterclass, the Dodgers secured a 5-1 victory at a quiet and deflated Rogers Centre. This win sent the World Series back to Los Angeles tied at one game apiece.
### Yamamoto Shines for the Blue Jays
Yamamoto’s performance was the highlight of the night. Just eleven days removed from his nine-inning, one-run, seven-strikeout gem against the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Championship Series, he ensured that, after the Dodgers’ bullpen meltdown in Game 1, no reliever would be required in this outing.
### Dodgers’ Offensive Revival
The bigger development, however, was the Dodgers’ offensive revival. At some point in this series, the Blue Jays are expected to get their bats going again. On Saturday, the Dodgers eased concerns over their ability to do the same.
The Dodgers got to Gausman early, with Freddie Freeman fouling off three two-strike pitches before lining a double to right field in the first inning. He later scored on Smith’s single—Smith’s first of three RBIs on the night.
After that early burst, the Dodgers couldn’t put a runner on base against Gausman until the seventh inning. Gausman attacked with plenty of fastballs in the heart of the strike zone, but the Dodgers mostly hit harmless pop flies, resulting in outs on each of the first 12 fastballs they put in play.
Finally, in the seventh inning, Smith broke through. After going without an extra-base hit in his first nine postseason games—partly due to lingering effects from a fractured hand in September—the All-Star catcher got a full-count fastball up and over the inner half of the plate. He launched it 404 feet down the left-field line, flexing his arms as it landed in the second deck.
Two batters later, Muncy produced a similar result. In a 2-and-2 count, he got an outside fastball just above the belt and lined it the other way for his second home run of the postseason.
Just like that, Gausman was knocked out of the game.
An inning later, the Dodgers kept piling on, turning a bases-loaded opportunity into a two-run rally after Andy Pages scored on a wild pitch, and Smith beat out a potential double-play ball.
### Historic Complete Game for Yamamoto
That cleared the way for Yamamoto to go the distance, becoming the first Dodgers pitcher to throw consecutive complete games in the playoffs since Orel Hershiser did so three straight times in 1988.
This performance erased the momentum the Blue Jays had built after Game 1 and put it firmly back on the defending champions’ side. The battle now returns to Los Angeles with the series leveled at one game apiece.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2025-10-25/yoshinobu-yamamoto-complete-game-dodgers-blue-jays-world-series-game-2
