The Los Angeles Dodgers took a 2-0 lead on the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series. Blake Snell gave the Dodgers eight scoreless innings, allowing just one baserunner in Game 1, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto one-upped him in Game 2. Yamamoto threw a 111-pitch complete game, becoming the first Japanese-born pitcher to do so in postseason history.
Yamamoto notched seven strikeouts and allowed just three hits. He gave up just one walk. This start for Yamamoto was far different from the last time he took the mound in Milwaukee, when he did not even get out of the first inning. It was the first postseason complete game since Justin Verlander in 2017.
Yamamoto’s outing started off looking like it may be a repeat of what the Brewers did to him in the regular season. One pitch into the game, he had given up a home run to Jackson Chourio. However, he recorded 27 outs with his next 110 pitches.
“That was the first hitter,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda, according to MLB.com’s Sonja Chen. “And I feel regrettable, that home run, but I reset my mind and then I just focused on executing my own pitches.”
The Dodgers’ bullpen has been a question mark at times, but Snell and Yamamoto have ensured that they have not needed the bullpen much in the first two games.
Yamamoto threw 34 splitters, 27 curveballs, 27 four-seam fastballs, 12 cutters, nine sinkers and two sliders. His arsenal was on full display and one of the best offenses in baseball was left without answers.
He got eight whiffs on his splitter. Brewers hitters were left guessing all night, and manager Pat Murphy commended Yamamoto’s stuff.
“This guy’s split looks like a heater,” Murphy said after the game. “Comes out of the same tunnel. It looks exactly the same.”
The Dodgers are now two wins away from being back in the World Series, and Yamamoto has looked like an ace this October.
Photo: Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto celebrates throwing a complete game against the Milwaukee Brewers, in Game 2 of baseball’s National League Championship Series, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
