The Toronto Blue Jays will enter Friday night’s Game 6 with a chance to win their first World Series title in 32 years. However, they will have to overcome Los Angeles Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto if they want to avoid a decisive Game 7.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider emphasized the importance of being disciplined at the plate in order to best the All-Star and close out the 2025 Fall Classic.
“Man, hopefully he’s a little tired,” Schneider told Bob Nightengale of USA Today. “Throwing that many innings. He’s unique because he’s got what seems like six or seven pitches, and can kind of morph into different pitchers as the game goes on.
“You got to be stubborn, you have to be ready to hit, and you have to be stubborn with what kind of swings you’re taking. That’s what it comes down to. He’s not a guy you can kind of wait out. He’s going to pound the zone, so sometimes you got to force some action on him.”
Yamamoto played a crucial role in the Dodgers’ Game 2 win, helping Los Angeles tie the series at one game apiece by pitching a four-hit complete game. The 27-year-old retired the final 20 batters of the contest, becoming the first pitcher to do so in a World Series game since Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956.
While the Blue Jays have won two straight games, Yamamoto and the Dodgers remain motivated to extend the series and continue their title defense.
“It’s fight or flight, it’s whatever adage or saying you want, to leave it all out there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s certainly not war. I’m not trying to compare that to war. But in our world, in our small world of baseball, it is war.
“So that’s the mindset.”
https://clutchpoints.com/mlb/toronto-blue-jays/blue-jays-news-john-schneider-stubborn-demand-yoshinobu-yamamoto-matchup
