TORONTO — Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto returned to the mound where he threw the final pitch of the 2025 World Series and immediately struck out the side to set the tone for the Dodgers’ 4-1 win Tuesday against the Blue Jays.
If Kyle Tucker had been a little more sure-footed on a line drive over his head to lead off the second inning, Yamamoto, who gave up one run in six-plus innings Tuesday, might have had a perfect-game bid going into the sixth.
It was a tough angle, slowing Tucker for a few steps. And that was enough to put the ball just out of reach, allowing Jesús Sánchez to jog to second base for a double.
Two batters later, Tucker made a sliding catch on a short fly ball that threatened to touch down in no-man’s land. Then Yamamoto wrapped up the inning with his fourth strikeout of the game.
That eight-pitch battle ended with a cutter at the top of the zone. Nathan Lukes watched it and flipped his bat toward the Blue Jays’ dugout. It was a called third strike; Lukes didn’t argue.
Including that strikeout, Yamamoto retired 12 straight batters. In the midst of that stretch, he didn’t let the ball leave the infield for two straight innings.
The next time he faced Sánchez, Yamamoto took a different tact, throwing mostly pitches that moved down or away from the left-handed hitter. According to Statcast, the only time Yamamoto returned to the cutter — the pitch Sánchez drove over Tucker’s head — he located it off the plate.
Yamamoto then came back over the plate with a curveball. Sánchez lunged at it, as the pitch fell out of the strike zone. Strike three. Sánchez grimaced.
Sánchez wasn’t the only one; Yamamoto’s stuff was quite literally keeping the Blue Jays off balance.
Toronto’s Andrés Giménez spun halfway around and crumpled to the ground on a check swing in the sixth inning. But Giménez recovered and got his hands inside a cutter to drop a soft line drive into shallow right field for a single.
Yamamoto then labored through the sixth inning. He gave up an RBI double to George Springer and a walk before escaping without further damage.
He returned for the seventh and appeared to strike out Kazuma Okamoto to open the inning. But Okamoto made a successful ABS challenge.
Okamoto lined a double to right-center field. Then Ernie Clement placed a bunt single up the third-base line to move Okamoto to third. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts walked out to take the ball from Yamamoto.
Miguel Rojas scratched
The Dodgers scratched veteran middle infielder Miguel Rojas from the starting lineup before the game so that he could attend to a family matter. Hyeseong Kim replaced him at shortstop.
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