And just like that, the 2025 World Series is now a best-of-five contest as the $320+ Million Dollar Payroll Behemoth that is the Los Angeles Dodgers struck back, winning Game 2 in Toronto by a score of 5-1. The series now shifts to the West Coast, to the scenic confines of Chavez Ravine for the next three games. Technically the series doesn’t need to come back to Toronto, either team could go on to win the next three games, ending the series 4-1 but based on how the series has started this seems unlikely. My best guess is that the series goes six games, which would necessitate it coming back to Toronto but we’ll see.

Hats off to both starting pitchers in last night’s game. Kevin Gausman played the part of ace for Toronto and kept the Dodgers lineup at bay for most of the game. While he was great, and the crowd was behind him, it did feel a little like he was getting away with something. Like it shouldn’t be happening and the success was borrowed. How long would the sleeping giant lineup from Los Angeles, indeed, stay asleep at the plate? He used his fastball at greater clip than he normally does and for the most part all was well, even if it felt a touch too good to be true, until Smith and Muncy proved it was and took him deep in the 7th. Still a great outing for Gausman, and had the Jays given him some run support, seized full control of the game and rode the momentum still lingering from Game 1, who knows, but the reason they could not was because of the always-fun-to-say-name of the Dodgers starter:

Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

If it felt a bit like Kevin Gausman was getting away with something he shouldn’t be, like a teenage kid staying out past curfew seemingly unbeknownst to his parents, watching Yamamoto pitch looked more like one of those carnival game purveyors who keep taking your money, one dollar bill after another, after another, after another as you’re convinced knocking down that clown or making that basket just CANNOT be this hard. The dude is a six-pitch wielding wizard whose breaking ball seems to flutter like a butterfly harmlessly above the zone, only to zip all of a sudden like a hummingbird into it. Only to then also dot the edges anywhere in the zone with a 95-99mph fastball. The second year Japanese phenom threw his second consecutive complete game for the Dodgers, again on the road. His line against Milwaukee last round: 9IP, 3H,1ER,1BB,7K on 111 pitches. His line last night: 9IP, 4H, 1ER, 0BB, 8K on 105 pitches. If we’ve dubbed Shohei Ohtani the “Japanese Babe Ruth” (which actually doesn’t even give Ohtani enough credit for he’s doing things Ruth has no concept of. No disrespect to Ruth, different eras, I get it, but still), then Yoshinobu Yamamoto is emerging as the “Japanese Greg Maddux” for his artistry on the mound, the way he keeps hitters off balance, his trust in off-speed pitches and his clinical efficiency. Maddux was known to toss complete games under 100 pitches, and Yamamoto’s not far behind. To do so in consecutive starts in the playoffs, he’s now in the recent company of the Schillings, Bumgardners, etc. The feat hasn’t been done for the Dodgers since a guy who was no slouch named Orel Hershiser, and before him just some dude named Sandy Koufax…

If you’re a Blue Jay fan, sometimes you just gotta tip the cap to greatness, or in this case offer an honorable bow to the Japanese master whose prowess was on full display last night in Game 2. Sometimes you just gotta recognize when you’re in a historical moment. In Game 1 it was Addison Barger and him hitting the first ever pinch hit grand slam in a World Series, and last night in Game 2 it was the wizardry of Yamamoto. 

Is it too much to ask for a history-making performance every game this series? 
As mentioned above, now it’s a race for either team to win 3 of the next 5. Can’t wait.