The Los Angeles Dodgers became baseball’s first consecutive champions in 25 years on Saturday evening, doing so in an unforgettable 11-inning Game 7.
From Miguel Rojas hitting a solo home run to tie the game in the top of the ninth inning, to Andy Pages’ fly ball to send the game to extras, to Will Smith’s home run to finally win the game with two outs in the 11th, to Mookie Betts converting a series-winning double play with a runner in scoring position, the Dodgers gave Los Angeles an epic championship.
Perhaps one of the most heroic aspects of a game that had no shortage of brave moments was its ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto. On zero days of rest, he made himself available to his team when they needed him most.
More news: 7 Dodgers officially hit Free Agency after World Series win
With one out and two on in the bottom of the ninth, Yamamoto entered the game. It wasn’t until his second pitch that he hit a batter, loading the bases. After a groundout narrowly led to a force out at home, Pages fouled out (knocking over Kiké Hernández) and they went to the 10th inning.
Yamamoto securing the final eight outs of Game 7 without rest only added to his strengthened case to win the World Series MVP award, and after deservingly winning it, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman spoke of the right-hander’s brilliance.
“The fact that he has the same stuff he had the night before is absolutely mind-boggling to me,” Friedman said. “I got a text last night (via Will Ireton) that Yama was getting treatment to be ready for the day. I kind of made fun of it, like, ‘Oh, that’s great, he really cares, but the chances of that are pretty low.’ And today he got treatment again and said, ‘Hey, I feel really good. Like, I can go out and throw at least one inning, and we’ll see how my stuff holds up.”
“For him to have the same stuff he had the night before is honestly the greatest achievement I’ve ever seen on a Major League Baseball field.”
Yamamoto threw 96 pitches the night before and struck out six batters over as many innings, allowing just one earned run. His performance in Game 6 was a big reason why there was a Game 7, and him throwing the most important 2.2 innings of the season only adds to his awesome legend.
More news: Dave Roberts reveals what Yoshinobu Yamamoto said to him in the dugout before the 11th inning
Photo credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Have you downloaded the new Dodgers Nation app yet? Click here for Apple users And here for Android users to be part of the redesigned app to give fans everything they need, all in one placee. Don’t miss it live GameCast with play-by-play, news and analysis, Dodgers Nation podcasts and videos, all the stats you want and more!
#Dodgers #Andrew #Friedman #calls #Yoshinobu #Yamamotos #World #Series #performance