#MLBVideos: REACTION: Yoshinobu Yamamoto tosses his second complete game in the 2025 Postseason 👀

REACTION: Yoshinobu Yamamoto tosses his second complete game in the 2025 Postseason 👀

Josh Anova, when you have command of all your pitches like that, what does that feel like to be able to work your way through this lineup? Early on the first inning, I was kind of uh throwing unnecessary tension, but I adjusted that and then I was able to like execute my pitches. What conversations did Dave and the coaching staff have with you late in the game about how you were feeling and whether or not you would be able to complete this one? Uh we were just talking about that uh pitch sequence and then you know what we going to throw. I just like a planning um against the coming up uh lineup. How did you feel later in the game physically? I started feeling warming warmed up and then you know because I started like getting into my groove. Lastly, it’s been 24 years since a pitcher had back-to-back complete games in the postseason. What does that mean to you? I’m very happy and then I’d like to do this again and it contributed to you. This was an oldfashioned pitcher duel on paper as the Los Angeles Dodgers throw out Yoshobi Yamamoto against Kevin Gosman. Both guys are matching their both for blow, but ultimately it’s Yamamoto who goes the distance. See why he didn’t last him against the Brewers, he does it now in Toronto. Talk about being efficient. He understood the assignment today, especially how the game went yesterday. I remember watching him in the dugout analyzing the game yesterday. He came out on a mission. Only 82 pitches only over his final eight innings of the game right there. Talk about efficiency. He figured out the weaknesses of the Blue Jays. Continued to pound his own, mixed his cutter, splitter, fast ball. He was absolutely fascinating tonight. Yeah, it’s interesting how the extra rest may have hurt still a little bit. He was a little bit rusty at times or his young motor. the extra wrestling just propelled him to keep doing what he’s doing. It’s like all right, little extra rest, little extra giddy up. We’ve seen the VO be up. And in terms of complete games, again, he’s such a throwback right now. Yamo is doing something we haven’t seen in terms of World Series complete games. You know, Madam did in 2014, but this is the first one since Quato back in 2015 against the Mets. Cliff Lee, Josh Beckett. This is a different era when guys would do this. Yeah, you saw he got into some stressful situations early in the game, but after he started to settle in midame, it was no reason to get anybody up in the bullpen. He continued to stay efficient. the pitch count was low. You knew that he had control of the Blue Jays bats, which tells you if if the pitchers, they’re so great for the Dodgers if they’re able to go out there and execute. I mean, you’re talking about some of the guys who have the best stuff in the world. Snell didn’t have his agame going yesterday. Yamamoto had his agame going and he didn’t miss. Yeah, it’s a battle of two splinters, right? Gosh throws that great splitter. Yamoto’s as well, but really kept the Jitters off balance. We’ve talked before about Toronto working counts and they did that against Snell. You mentioned the pitch count. Yamoto, they were swinging early and it didn’t matter. It really speaks to how great his split finger is and how great his heater is. I mean, we’re sitting here right behind home plate to finish the game off. The heater still had a lot of zip on it late in the game. The guys, if you’re if you’re facing that, you have to respect the heater. And as soon as he sees you respect the heater, great job by Will Smith behind the plate to be able to make the adjustment on the fly. See, when guys are cheating on the heater, you pull the string on them. When you feel like they’re sitting back, you stick the heater in. It was perfect execution tonight. Those two pitches, he knew what he was doing. Like, you’re right. Give credit to Will Smith behind the plate as well. Yamamoto a dominant performance and a throwback performance. You know, in terms of consecutive complete games in a single postseason of the wild card era going back the start of 1995, one of the greatest big game pitchers ever. Kurt Schilling did it three times back in 2001. A CG shutpiece as they say. You think of Dodgers great starters in the World Series. Obviously think of Earl Hersiser in 88. Don Larson 1956 game five. But Yamamoto has now proven Al when you look at his performance last year against the Yankees. Six innings, one hit, one run. And now tonight against the Blue Jays, this is truly the stuff of legend. This guy goes out there with the ball in his hand and good luck. He’s ready to shut you down. In his last start, game two, the LCS against the Brewers. Complete game. We don’t really talk a whole lot about complete games here in modern baseball. But before I get into the tape, this is a legit front end top premium starting pitcher. He’s fifth in the u all the baseball at the 249 RA 173 and he’s had 21 strikeouts. I want to show this before I get into my tape. the plethora of velocities in all of his pitches. He had a 24 mph difference from that 97.9 mph fast ball down to his curveball at 74 miles an hour. That’s tough see you know that to have speed variation and multiple pitches. Let’s go to the next board here showing what he actually threw here percentages. So I wanted to drill down on you know just sitting on split fast ball. We could kind of pick either or flip a coin 50%. He used his curveball used his cutter. Yeah, you’d put maybe eliminate your sinker, which is a two seat fast ball and the slider. All right, let’s go in the tape because this really says a lot about what Yamamoto is all about. Yes, he’s got enough fast ball. It’s not a bully fast ball, but his ability to pitch and also study. You see him there looking at scatter reports. Yes, this was the first inn. He got a little dicey. He was able to fight it off after this what looked like potentially problem with Springer double and now first and third. Boy, did he buckle down. The curveball as I said down to 74 75 miles an hour. Nice speed to say Kirk line drive to Freeman. Held the runner at third and then hammer time throws that curveball. Love his delivery ability for his body and movement. He moves fast. So here we go into it. All of his pitches. I said that high cheese at 9798. Velocity’s up in this postseason. The curveball. You watch a lot of these really good hitters of Toronto Blue Jays. They don’t strike out a whole lot. They were really c guessing between which offspe pitch is it the curve ball going away from the righty. Look at this beautiful pitch right here. See why man and Kirk is a tough out. One of the better two strike hitters in baseball. See little jam shots on the cutter in on the lefties. Nasty curve ball guys I can’t say enough about. You talk about a masterclass of pitching and yeah he got the lead. It was a little buffer there after the two home runs he got in the seventh inning with Will Smith and Muny. It became acade academic after having uh the four runs there. Having the lead, it felt super easy and smooth. This guy is premium. He’s legit and it was fun to watch for me as an ex- pitcher. I don’t know about you if you enjoyed it, but I did. I enjoyed it. And and I look at it that was beautiful, by the way. And I look at it from a hitter’s perspective. He didn’t allow the hitters to focus on in, out, up, or down. As soon as he he locked you in in one zone, he was able to switch it up and change his zone. He was able to adjust on the fly. That that that bat to Vlatty was beautiful being able to mix in the curve ball. Fast ball low to where if you’re protecting this to split down, he’s able to throw the fast ball at the bottom of the zone, get you to chase. As soon as you get aggressive, he can slow you down with the curveball. I love what you said, Al. His ability to change speeds and have something that’s 74 mph, 97 mph. It doesn’t allow the the hitter to get comfortable. He’s comfortable coming in to right-handed hitters. Unfortunately, he hit George Springer, but sometimes you have to do that pitch as a pitcher to establish the inside of the plate. and established the inside of the plate, opened everything else up for him. In terms of the highest splitter usage in a single start, 32.4%. I mean he was using that splitter and using it to high effectiveness.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto joins @MLBNetwork to discuss his outstanding start in Game 2 of the World Series while Adnan Virk, Chris Young and Al Leiter dissect how Yamamoto was able to stifle the Blue Jays lineup, his pitch usage and more!

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