All the ideas about how to stop up the Dodgers’ leaky bullpen missed one thing: Maybe the starters can just do all the work.
A night after lefty Blake Snell threw eight one-hit innings to win Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto authored a one-run, three-hit complete game to give his team a 5–1 win in Game 2 and bring them two wins from a chance to defend their 2024 title. It was the Dodgers’ first complete game this season, Yamamoto’s first in the majors and the nation of Japan’s first in the MLB postseason. He retired the final 14 hitters he faced.
Even he was impressed: Wow, he mouthed and applauded into his glove after Andrew Vaughn swung through a splitter for out 27.
YOSHINOBU YAMAMOTO FINISHES OFF A COMPLETE GAME ON PITCH NO. 111!#NLCS pic.twitter.com/swcxV67ouu
— MLB (@MLB) October 15, 2025
Snell and Yamamoto became the first pair of teammates to throw at least eight innings on consecutive postseason days since Madison Bumgarner and then Tim Lincecum did it for the 2010 Giants in Games 4 and 5 of the World Series.
“Both those pitchers were as dominant as two pitchers have been,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy. “We chased way more than we've chased all year. We’ve been the best in baseball at not chasing. These pitchers brought out the worst in us.”
Even kids can tell the Brewers are in a tough spot. “It seems like we haven’t been hitting singles,” lamented Murphy’s 11-year-old son, Austin, as the manager’s postgame press conference wrapped up.
“It’s because the pitching’s so good,” his dad explained.
It will be hard to ask the rotation to replicate this sort of performance every night, but it would certainly help: In the one inning they’ve pitched so far this series, the bullpen allowed one fewer earned baserunner (four) than Snell and Yamamoto combined (five) over 17 frames. In Game 1, with the Dodgers up 2–0, erstwhile-starter-turned-closer Roki Sasaki sandwiched a pair of walks around a double and a sacrifice fly to bring the game within one with two outs. Manager Dave Roberts summoned erstwhile-closer-turned-rollercoaster-reliever Blake Treinen, who loaded the bases with a walk before inducing a strikeout and a lot of sighs of relief. And those are Los Angeles’s two best relievers! This season, the team got 3.2 WAR (ninth in baseball) from its starting pitchers, all of whom but Yamamoto spent time on the injured list. From the bullpen it got –6.4 WAR, second-worst.
Yoshinobu rebounds from NLDS loss
Tuesday’s was the sort of outing the Dodgers envisioned when they signed Yamamoto to a $325 million, 10-year deal, the richest in history for a pitcher, before last season. He had a 2.49 ERA in 173 ⅔ regular-season innings this year, and he threw 6 ⅔ innings of no-earned-run ball against the Reds in the wild card series, but the Phillies scored three runs in four innings against him in the division series last week.
Philadelphia was especially not fooled by his typically excellent splitter: He threw only 12 of them in 67 pitches, and the Phillies never swung and missed at it or took it for a strike. On Tuesday, he debuted newly-dyed black hair, a departure from his usual frosted tips, and a much sharper signature pitch: He threw the splitter 33 times in 110 pitches, and the Brewers whiffed at it seven times and took it for a strike thrice. As for the ‘do, he said his struggles against the Phillies were not the reason for the change, “but I hope this helps to get things going in my direction.” He may never be able to bring back the boy-band look.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Vicious 92mph Splitter. 😤 pic.twitter.com/PmV8ndprSs
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 15, 2025
“This guy’s split looks like a heater,” said Murphy. “Comes out of the same tunnel. It looks exactly the same. He’s got an impeccable delivery. He doesn’t miss a lot. And the ball shows up as a heater—bang, goes down. And his heater shows up as a heater and then rises. So it’s pretty impressive.”
Indeed, after allowing a first-pitch, leadoff home run to Brewers 22-year-old phenom Jackson Chourio, Yamamoto allowed only five balls out of the infield. Incredibly, third baseman Max Muncy said he believes Yamamoto has not reached his ceiling.
“We said before this postseason started, our starting pitching was going to be what carried us,” said Muncy, whose sixth-inning home run gave him the Dodgers’ all-time postseason lead with 14. “And so far it’s been exactly that.”
Indeed, Tuesday’s outing marks seven quality starts in eight postseason games for the Dodgers. In their 16-game title run last year, they had two.
“If you’re trying to build the recipe to win games,” Muncy said, “that would be where you would start.” (Pun presumably intended.)
Tyler Glasnow will start Game 3. He might have to finish it, too.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How Yoshinobu Yamamoto Delivered the Best Pitched Playoff Game in Years.
