LOS ANGELES — Dodgers Game 2 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto fooled the Yankees in winter by throwing out a few random facts about pinstriped lore. You know, the kind of stuff you could learn by Googling. Anyway, intentional or not, it served as a great changeup, and he had the Yankees assuming rumors he preferred to go west were wrong and he actually dreamed of The Bronx. Oops.
Well, Yamamoto did it again in Game 2, using a repertoire from the heavens to make all the Yankees except Juan Soto look like rank amateurs in LA’s 4-2 victory. Yamamoto hadn’t been anywhere near as advertised since returning several weeks ago from shoulder woes, but he fooled us all again by looking like the monster talent who received a record $325 million contract from the Dodgers. (The Yankees bid $300M before realizing he wasn’t going to come, no matter the money.)
Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
Yamamoto, who got $1M more than Yankees ace Gerrit Cole (albeit for one more year) and almost exactly double Yankees Game 2 starter Carlos Rodon’s $162M Yankees free-agent take, pitched the best game of his inaugural Major League career on the biggest stage. Throw in the $50.6M posting fee and he still looks plenty worth it today.
Meantime, Rodon got hammered — make that double hammered. Third inning back-to-back home runs by Teoscar Hernandez and Game 1 grand slam hero Freddie Freeman were plenty with Yamamoto dominating like this. On his way out, after 6 ¹/₃ innings of one-hit baseball, Yamamoto received perhaps the biggest ovation on a night when Dodgers fans came to revel in Freeman’s Game 1 heroics.
The Yankees were supposed to have the starting pitching edge, but through two games, the Dodgers are better there since Yamamoto was the best of the four starters and Rodon easily the worst. The Yankees needed to have the rotation edge because the Dodgers possess a lineup that doesn’t quit and a bullpen that’s either the best in baseball or the best-rested.
The Yankees didn’t do the little things right in Game 1 but switched it up for Game 2, when they didn’t do the big things right, either.
Jason Szenes / New York Post
Through two games, they don’t look good. In fact, they look a lot less good than the crosstown Mets looked against this juggernaut of a Dodgers team, which is showing now why it was favored to win this World Series.
The World Series opener was devastating in that there was a lot to lament — from Aaron Boone’s risky pitching calls to Gleyber Torres’ careless defense to Anthony Rizzo’s bizarre baserunning to even Carlos Torres’ strike zone. Umpire auditor estimated he was worth 0.41 runs to the Dodgers.
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No one mistake or one man in blue could have changed Game 2, when the Dodgers dominated almost from the start. No late-game fireworks were necessary in Game 2 since the Yankees were limited to a bomb of a home run by free-agent-to-be Juan Soto — he also scored in the ninth after reaching on a single off the wall — who’s only guaranteed two more games in his Yankees tenure, which has been a blast.
If the Yankees are going to pull a mild upset and a major comeback, they need to win the rotation war to start winning the battle big. So far, it isn’t happening.