The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-1, on Saturday evening behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s four-hit complete game masterpiece. He added eight strikeouts, allowed one earned run, and walked no batters.
As the defending champions’ ace is now learning what it means to take things up to another level in October, Dodgers utility star Kiké Hernández, who is no stranger to elevating his performance during the postseason, spoke on his teammate’s brilliance.
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“It’s just not normal,” Hernández said. “You’re not supposed to keep getting better, and he’s finding a way to do it. Like, what’s his ceiling? Yeah, you don’t know if there’s a ceiling there. The sky could be the limit for him.”
Yamamoto became the first pitcher to throw back-to-back complete games in the postseason since Curt Schilling in 2001, the first pitcher to go the distance in the World Series since Johnny Cueto in 2015, and the first Dodger to do so in the Fall Classic since Orel Hershiser in 1988.
Despite the World Series gem, Yamamoto still took the time to clean out all the trash in his team’s dugout before heading to the clubhouse.
Hernández had a message for his pitcher ahead of the eventual complete game, urging Yamamoto to have faith in his abilities.
“Trust that your s— is better than their s— even if that specific pitch is the best pitch that that guy hits,” Hernández said Saturday, thinking back to that message as he watched the at-bat against Guerrero. “Trust that your best is not what he hits from other people. Your best can still overpower people and get people out.”
Even Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, who unprecedentedly moved from right field to shortstop at a Gold Glove-caliber level, had to share his awe after the contest.
“I’ve been playing a long time, but I haven’t ever seen anything like this,” Betts said.
Across the regular season, Yamamoto was nothing short of a Cy Young award candidate. So far this postseason, Yamamoto has a 1.57 ERA through four starts. He has punched out 26 batters and walked only four through 28.2 (mostly) spectacular innings.
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