TORONTO – Yoshinobu Yamamoto came up with another strong postseason start to help keep the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series as they beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 in Game 6 on Friday to take the best-of-seven battle down to the wire.
Yamamoto (4-1) limited the fired-up Blue Jays — a win away from their first championship in 32 years — to a run on five hits and a walk over six innings for his third straight win in the postseason, with his six overall at the stage moving him above Yu Darvish and Masahiro Tanaka for the most by a Japanese pitcher.
The right-hander had tossed two complete games to earn the wins in his previous starts, the latter in World Series Game 2 on Oct. 25 when he went perfect from the fourth. He was commanding as usual on his return to Rogers Centre before starting to show signs of fatigue prior to coming off the mound.
“I found myself in a tight spot from the start last time, so I was especially intent on keeping them off the board there, and managed to do so,” said Yamamoto, who showed few nerves in fulfilling a huge role to save his team.
“There was pressure, of course, but I just gave my all while pitching hoping to come away with a good result. I think I did well.”
His opposite number Kevin Gausman (2-3) made a great start to the game by striking out the side swinging in the first and fanning two more in the second but gave up three runs in the third.
Tommy Edman doubled with one out for the Dodgers’ first hit and Shohei Ohtani was walked intentionally before Will Smith doubled in the opening run. After a walk, Mookie Betts singled in two more in the inning Gausman got all his outs on strikeout, the last three of the eight he got in the game.
Yamamoto yielded his only run in the home half after Addison Barger led with a double and scored on a George Springer single with two outs.
The right-hander allowed a runner each in the next two innings and had two on in the sixth but struck out Daulton Varsho with a 1-2 splitter to end the jam.
Roki Sasaki was sent to the mound in the eighth and survived a two-on jam with one out before riding his luck in the ninth, which he began by hitting a batter.
Addison Barger hit a fly ball to center with a runner on first and the ball was stuck underneath the wall, with center fielder Justin Dean appealing and not playing the ball immediately. Two runs were scored, but it was deemed a ground-rule double and runners returned to second and third.
Sasaki got the hook as Tyler Glasnow took over as the Dodgers’ third reliever and after one out, left fielder Enrique Hernandez caught a line drive before throwing out a second-base runner to provide a dramatic end to the contest.
Ohtani had his first hit in three games with a double in the eighth to go 1-for-3.