Will Smith stared into left-field, then turned to ignite the Dodgers dugout with a scream.
Max Muncy stared into left field, then turned to quiet the stands with a finger on his lips.
Two batters, two reactions, one saved World Series.
Sputtering after making 17 consecutive outs, threatening to ruin more brilliance by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Dodgers suddenly erupted with two blasts in about two minutes Saturday, seventh inning home runs by Smith and Muncy rescuing their game and quite possibly their season in fueling a 5-1 victory over the host Toronto Blue Jays to tie the Series at one game apiece.
While the two game-changing fastballs left the yard, Yamamoto never did, becoming the first Dodger to earn a second consecutive complete game victory since Orel Hershiser bulldogged it for the Dodgers 37 years ago.
That’s right, 105 more pitches of mastery, Yamamoto worked all nine innings, allowing the one run, four hits, nine strikeouts, no walks, retiring the final 20 hitters, simply amazing, again.
“I took it one inning by one inning,” he said on FOX. “And then I was executing my pitches very well.”
One by one by incredible. The series momentum, which belonged to Toronto after the Jays’ 11-4 blowout victory in the opener, now shifts solidly back to the Dodgers, with the next three games being played at Dodger Stadium beginning Monday.
How are they looking? Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, and Blake Snell, that’s how. Those three will be their starters for the next three games at Dodger Stadium, which means a once-distressed series could be clinched by the Dodgers before it leaves town again.
So much changed so fast.
One moment, the teams were locked in a 1-all tie for six innings, a breathtaking pitching duel between Yamamoto and the Jays’ Kevin Gausman.
Then, with one out in the seventh, Gausman blinked first, Smith turning on a 94-mph fastball and driving it 404 feet into the left-field seats. The usually stoic Smith screamed into his dugout, and their return screams were amplified when, one out later, Muncy drove a 96-mph fastball 351 feet over the left-field fence to make it 3-1.
That left the stage to Yamamoto, the richest pitcher in baseball history with a $325 million contract, a deal which now seems worth it.
Entering the game he had a 2-1 1.83 ERA in three playoff starts, most recently beating the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS with the Dodgers first postseason complete game in 21 years.
And now he’s just done it again, aided by two tacked-on Dodger runs in the eighth
He benefited early Saturday when the Dodgers scored first, with two out in the first, on a lunging double into the right-field corner by Freddie Freeman and, two pitches later, a single to center by Smith.
But he responded by struggling in Toronto’s half of the first, the Blue Jays putting the first two batters on base with a double by George Springer and a bloop single by Nathan Lukes. But Yamamoto retired the heart of the Jays order — Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Alejandro Kirk and Daulton Varsho — without any of them hitting the ball out of the infield.
Yamamoto kept struggling in the third, when the Blue Jays tied it after Yamamoto hit Springer on the forearm, Guerrero Jr. lined a single off the left-field wall, and Alejandro Kirk scored Springer with a fly ball to center.
But, amazingly, no Blue Jay reached base after that fly ball, Yamamoto shutting them down, shutting them out, and setting the stage for a Game 3 at Dodger Stadium Monday night that will be filled with biting emotion as the locals welcome back two old, um, friends.
Springer will be batting leadoff for the Jays, and Max Scherzer will be starting on the mound, and if you don’t boo both of them into vapor, then I don’t know you anymore.
Springer, of course, is one of the last active members of the Houston Astros team that cheated the Dodgers out of the 2017 World Series championship. In that series he hit .379 with five home runs and seven RBI and was named MVP, but he did so while leading a team that stole the Dodgers signs and were prepared for the Dodgers pitches.
Remember the banging of the trash cans? Sure you do. Does it still make you furious? Sure it does.
This being the Dodgers first postseason meeting with Springer since that travesty, it would be a nice time to show him just how furious.
Then there’s the well-traveled Scherzer, who came to the Dodgers at the trade deadline in 2021 and was seemingly destined to lead them to a second consecutive championship.
Except when they needed him most, he tapped out.
After allowing just two runs in 12 ⅓ innings in the wild card and division series — even saving the division series clinching game against the San Francisco Giants — Scherzer began to tire in the NLCS against the Atlanta Braves. He was days from becoming a free agent. He didn’t want to risk his health and ruin a potentially big contract.
So when the Dodgers asked him to start Game 6, he cited injuries and said he was not available. Walker Buehler was rushed into action in his place and gave up four runs in four innings in a 4-2 season-ending loss.
The Dodgers have not forgotten that day. Scherzer was like, what day?
“I wouldn’t be looking backwards at all for any motivation,” he told the media Saturday. “I have plenty of motivation. I’m here to win and I’ve got a clubhouse full of guys who want to win, too. So we’re a great team and that’s the only thing I need to think about.”
Dodger fans may choose to remind him. On Tuesday at Dodger Stadium they’ll get their chance.
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