TORONTO — Yoshinobu Yamamoto was named World Sequence MVP for the Los Angeles Dodgers with one of many biggest pitching performances in Fall Traditional historical past, together with an epic aid look in Recreation 7 on Saturday night time.
Yamamoto pitched 2⅔ scoreless innings within the clincher a day after throwing 96 pitches in a Recreation 6 win. He additionally threw a four-hitter in Recreation 2 that was the primary full sport within the World Sequence since 2015.
“Yamamoto is the GOAT!” supervisor Dave Roberts shouted moments earlier than the Dodgers hoisted the World Sequence trophy.
Yamamoto, 27, pitched out of a jam within the ninth inning, leaving the bases loaded and the rating tied at 4. After cruising by way of the tenth, he labored round Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s leadoff double to protect a 5-4 lead and lock up LA’s second consecutive championship.
Signed from Japan to a $325 million, 12-year contract earlier than final season, Yamamoto was 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA towards the Toronto Blue Jays. He struck out 15 and walked two over 17⅔ innings, permitting two runs and 10 hits.
The best-hander’s Recreation 2 gem was his second consecutive full sport of the postseason. He retired the ultimate 20 batters in a 5-1 Dodgers victory.
That got here after a three-hitter towards Milwaukee within the Nationwide League Championship Sequence, the primary postseason full sport in eight years.
No pitcher had gone the space within the Fall Traditional since Kansas Metropolis’s Johnny Cueto fired a two-hitter towards the New York Mets in Recreation 2 of the 2015 World Sequence.
Yamamoto was not fairly as sharp in Recreation 6, permitting one run and 5 hits in six innings as Los Angeles received 3-1 to pressure Recreation 7.
Together with a victory in Recreation 2 of final 12 months’s World Sequence towards the New York Yankees, Yamamoto is 4-0 with a 1.13 ERA in 4 Fall Traditional appearances.
Arizona ace Curt Schilling was the final pitcher to throw consecutive full video games within the postseason, tossing three in a row within the 2001 NL Division Sequence and NLCS.
Orel Hershiser had been the final Dodgers pitcher with a solo Sequence effort, in Video games 2 and 5 towards Oakland in 1988. Corridor of Famer Sandy Koufax pitched two Sequence full video games every in 1963 and 1965.
Yamamoto pitched 12 full video games in his final three seasons with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Pacific League earlier than becoming a member of the Dodgers.