the stakes of his previous visit to Rogers Centre<\/a>, when Yamamoto logged back-to-back victories in Games 6 and 7 of an epic World Series battle.<\/p>\nBut up to that point, he\u2019d been almost as dominant.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe commanded everything,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cHe threw the baseball really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, out of nowhere, he almost squandered the Dodgers\u2019 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays finally broke through in the sixth, when Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez hit a leadoff single and George Springer brought him home with an RBI double. In the seventh, Yamamoto left behind an even bigger jam, exiting the game with the tying runners aboard after Kazuma Okamoto doubled (staying alive via an ABS challenge that negated a called third strike earlier in his at-bat) and Ernie Clement bunted for a hit.<\/p>\n
Just like that, reliever Alex Vesia was inheriting a high-leverage mess. And after he walked his first batter, the Blue Jays had the bases loaded with no outs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gotta walk the first guy,\u201d Vesia deadpanned, \u201cand then make it really hard for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alas, as became their habit last October, the Dodgers found a way to escape and prevail.<\/p>\n
Vesia prevented any runs from scoring, skipping off the bump three outs later with a pump of his fist. Blake Treinen and Edwin D\u00edaz took care of the next two innings, sewing up the team\u2019s fifth-consecutive win to clinch this week\u2019s highly-anticipated rematch series.<\/p>\n
And this time, it was Yamamoto cheering the biggest moments from the dugout, getting a lift from his teammates in a victorious six-plus-inning, one-run performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was saved by Vesia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Shohei](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55d881257a552c5639c57ece5589a897.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Shohei Ohtani hits a single against the Toronto Blue Jays in the third inning. Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
What it means<\/p>\n
The Dodgers had already clinched a winning road trip with their victory in Monday\u2019s series opener. Now, they\u2019ve secured two series wins and have the chance Wednesday to go 6-0 on this East Coast swing.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sign that everything is clicking for the team right now \u2013\u2013 from the offense (which now has 49 runs on the trip) to the starting pitching (led by Yamamoto and his 2.50 ERA through three outings) and even a bullpen that is off to a resurgent start to the season (lowering its ERA to 2.70 after Wednesday\u2019s three scoreless innings).<\/p>\n
At 9-2 overall, the Dodgers are also on the verge of reaching the 10-win mark faster than they have since 2021.<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s hot<\/p>\n
How about the two names at the bottom of the order Tuesday, who helped spark all three scoring rallies for the Dodgers on the night.<\/p>\n
No. 8 hitter Hyeseong Kim (who was a late addition to the lineup after Miguel Rojas was scratched because of a family matter) hit a leadoff double in the third inning, spurring a two-run frame that also included a 105 mph RBI single from Shohei Ohtani off the wall in right. In the fifth, he drew a leadoff walk before advancing to second on a Kevin Gausman balk.<\/p>\n
No. 9 hitter Alex Freeland, who was in a 1-for-21 slump entering Tuesday, scored Kim in the fifth with an RBI single. Later, he added a double in the seventh, then a two-out infield single in the ninth. The latter knock was also accompanied by a throwing error from Blue Jays catcher Brandon Valenzuela, allowing Freeland to go to second. He eventually scored on an RBI single from Tucker, giving D\u00edaz a little extra insurance for his fourth save.<\/p>\n
![\"Hyeseong](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3a00ed35d3a741bac5ad8908c68d86a4.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Hyeseong Kim throws out Toronto Blue Jays center fielder Daulton Varsho in the fifth inning. Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s not<\/p>\n
Just like Monday night, it remains the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
And to be more specific, their manager John Schneider.<\/p>\n
After Gausman\u2019s balk in the fifth inning, Schneider came out of the dugout with only one intention. With his team in an early-season rut, it seemed like he was begging to get ejected from the game.<\/p>\n
Following an extended argument, home plate umpire Dan Merzel finally obliged \u2013\u2013 prompting a red-faced Schenider to dramatically spike his cap to the ground before berating Merzel inches away from his face.<\/p>\n
If the outburst was intended to wake up his team, it failed. Instead, the banged-up Blue Jays dropped their sixth-straight game, and fell to 4-7 on the season.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The Dodgers will go for the series sweep Wednesday, when Shohei Ohtani will take the mound for the second time this season. He\u2019ll face off against Toronto\u2019s marquee offseason signing, Dylan Cease, for a 12:07 p.m. Pacific first pitch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers runs after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[22432,7526,2043,5,1692,377,2554,854,39,76,1087,6130,311,1393,3685,389,29,8935,4,3285,5889,468,1414,282,70,2553,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-669789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-alex-freeland","9":"tag-alex-vesia","10":"tag-andres-gimenez","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-blake-treinen","13":"tag-blue-jays","14":"tag-bluejays","15":"tag-daulton-varsho","16":"tag-dodgers","17":"tag-dylan-cease","18":"tag-edwin-diaz","19":"tag-ernie-clement","20":"tag-george-springer","21":"tag-hyeseong-kim","22":"tag-kazuma-okamoto","23":"tag-kevin-gausman","24":"tag-kyle-tucker","25":"tag-miguel-rojas","26":"tag-mlb","27":"tag-rogers-centre","28":"tag-second-inning","29":"tag-shohei-ohtani","30":"tag-the-blue-jays","31":"tag-toronto","32":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","33":"tag-torontobluejays","34":"tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116367778264051606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0898667462be0dbf888e3da6b6897a48.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Los](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/818f48bda03258775c6e6a90b8370643.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n