Dodgers and Blue Jays talk about what makes Shohei Ohtani a special player
USA TODAY Sports interviewed members of the Dodgers and Blue Jays ahead of the World Series to discuss Shohi Ohtani’s unique talent.
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TORONTO — Los Angeles Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw leaned against his locker Saturday and tried to explain what he had just witnessed.
He won three Cy Young Awards and two World Series championships.
He won the MVP award, appeared in 11 All-Star Games, won five Cy Young Awards, and won a Gold Glove.
But never in his 18-year career did he see teammate Yoshinobu Yamato reach where no one has gone in 33 years on Saturday night.
Pitcher Yamamoto, who led the Dodgers to a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, tying their chances of advancing to the World Series at one game apiece, pitched a four-hit complete game and retired the last 20 batters he faced, and may have just changed the future of baseball.
He truly brought back the golden age of pitching.
With his stellar night, Yamamoto became the first pitcher to pitch consecutive complete games in the postseason since Curt Schilling of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001, but Atlanta’s Tom Glavine was the last pitcher to pitch a complete game, including a World Series game.
He was the first pitcher to end a World Series game with 20 consecutive shutouts since Don Larsen in 1956, and the second pitcher in 1999 since Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1926.
He also became the first Dodgers pitcher since Sandy Koufax in 1963 to pitch a complete game in the World Series, striking out at least eight batters with no walks.
“I don’t have any adjectives or superlatives to say,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “To do that with less than 110 pitches in back-to-back starts is amazing.”
So does he now know what boys must have felt a century ago when Alexander and Cy Young were pitching?
Or maybe it goes back even further.
“Maybe we’ve got our own new Old Hoss (Radbourne),” Freeman said.
Well, the Dodgers will never have Yamamoto pitch at least 425 innings in six consecutive seasons like Grandpa Hoss, much less 678 innings in 1884, but you get the idea.
Did Kershaw imagine he would one day see that feat, considering no pitcher had pitched a complete game in the World Series since Johnny Cueto in 2015?
“I don’t think anyone could have predicted that,” Kershaw said. “But, you know, this might be a sign of baseball going in the direction it’s supposed to go and going back. I think it’s always fun to see a great starting pitcher matchup and see him go deep into the game. I hope this gives some people an idea for the future.”
Given the way Yoshinobu pitched, easily striking out the last 20 batters he faced, his 105 pitches were as meaningless as the number of sunflower seeds spat across Rogers Center Field.
“The way Yosh is pitching right now and the structure we have right now, he could throw 150 pitches if he wanted to,” Kershaw said.
“I think the way he throws the baseball is perfect. There’s no wasted movement, he’s very efficient. He came here with a fastball, a curveball, a splitter, and now he’s throwing a sinker, a cutter, a slider. So he’s got six pitches and he has the command to use them very well.”
Yes, there’s a reason he was the most coveted free agent pitcher before signing a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers two years ago.
A year ago, they wouldn’t have won the World Series without him.
And if he doesn’t post a 3-1 record with a 1.57 ERA in the postseason, he won’t be able to do the same this year.
Since giving up five runs in the first three innings in his postseason debut a year ago, he has started 6-1 for the Dodgers, posting a 1.62 ERA while striking out 40 batters in 44 1/3 innings.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts couldn’t stop praising him.
Roberts said: “He was outstanding, very competitive and special. One of the things he said before the series, losing is not an option, and he looked like that tonight.”
The Blue Jays led off with a double by George Springer and followed with a single by Nathan Rooks, who came out swinging at the first six pitches, but thought he was on his side.
no.
Not only did they not get an infield hit the rest of the inning, they only had two hits the rest of the game.
The Blue Jays looked completely clueless.
“He was unbelievable,” Springer said. “He did his best. … He showed why he was the way he was. …
“Just one of those moments where a very, very elite guy played a great game.”
Yamamoto was so dominant that after Alejandro Kirk hit a sacrifice fly in the third inning, he left only three balls in the infield for the rest of the game.
“My pitching style is to keep attacking the zone,” Yamamoto said.
The Dodgers’ bullpen soaked up the atmosphere throughout the game, with Aki Sasaki only warming up in the ninth inning.
“I mean, he could have thrown 30, 40 more pitches tonight,” Roberts said.
And even if he threw 140 pitches, he would have been better than anyone else the Dodgers brought in from the bullpen.
Yamamoto is made for this moment. He may only be in his second year as a pitcher in the major leagues, but he was a star player in Japan and a three-time Eiji Sawamura Award winner before ever setting foot in LA.
“He’s pitched in a big ball game in Japan,” Roberts said. “He’s pitched in the WBC before. A player who carries the weight of a country on his shoulders, that’s pressure.
“So I feel like part of his DNA is to perform at a high level where it matters, control his heart rate and just keep pitching.”
The hardest time for Yamamoto was in the first inning, when he threw 23 pitches, and after that he didn’t break a sweat for the entire game.
“It’s amazing,” Freeman said. “As he went through the fifth, sixth, seventh inning, I was just thinking about how he was setting up, how he was controlling the game, and what he was trying to do. … He just throws whenever he wants to throw. He sets up hitters, he understands hitters’ swings, and he’s just unbelievable.”
And Dodgers pitching coach Mark Pryor said he expects him to finish it once he has the ball to start the game.
“I love it,” Roberts said. “I love feeling like the starters are the best option to do the sixth, seventh, eighth (innings) and what Yamamoto is doing is the ninth inning. You’ve got to be efficient, you’ve got to have the weapons to be able to break the batting lineup in the third, fourth, whatever number of innings, and you’ve got to want to do that.
“I mean, he’s a classic player. It’s a lot of fun to root for a player, and you feel good about leaving a player alone.”
Yamamoto, who has become easily the most dominant pitcher in baseball throughout this postseason, is scheduled to return to Toronto and start Game 6.
The Blue Jays believe they will be better prepared after seeing Yamamoto for the first time.
There is one small problem as the Dodgers warned him to leave the clubhouse.
Considering the way they are pitching, there may not be a Game 6 as they will be back at Dodger Stadium for the next three games.
“That’s our hope,” Freeman said.
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