Yoshinobu Yamamoto
threw the first pitch of the Dodgers’ 2025 season in Tokyo, Japan, and he threw the last pitch of the year
in Game 7 of the World Series in Toronto, Canada. The only member of the team’s starting rotation active for the entire season, Yamamoto was the ace who trumped everything else, and secured the Dodgers’ second championship in a row
while winning World Series MVP.
Signed to the richest contract ever signed by a pitcher,
a 12-year, $325-million pact that looks like a steal two years in, Yamamoto is the Dodgers’ pitcher most on a specific schedule, never starting with fewer than five days rest, by design to keep him on a routine he is used to, and on a team usually with the depth to facilitate such a schedule. Yet it was Yamamoto who loomed most as
a Bill Brasky-type figure this October.
“To see what Yamamoto did, to be honest, was some of the craziest things I’ve ever seen,”
said fellow starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow, who earned the save in Game 6 and also got seven outs in relief in Game 7.
“Yama closing it with two and two thirds, I gotta learn from him. That was impressive.
Impressive,”
said Blake Snell, who got four outs in relief himself in Game 7, on two days rest.
Yamamoto in the World Series pitched in every inning from the first through the 11th, and even warmed up to pitch during the Game 3 marathon at Dodger Stadium. Just two days after throwing his second consecutive complete game,
the first pitcher to do so in 24 years, Yamamoto was set to pitch the 19th inning had Game 3 gone at least one more frame.
“He would have gone as long as we needed,” manager Dave Roberts said after the 18-inning win. “He would have been the last guy.”
Freddie Freeman,
whose walk-off home run in the 18th inning won Game 3, two days later spoke in awe of Yamamoto potentially pitching in that game.
“I heard he was like throwing like 10, 15 miles an hour in the bullpen, and they said, Hey, like, can you go? And he said, ‘Yeah, I can go.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, you need to pick it up, because you’re going to come into the 19th inning.‘ And they said his next pitch was 97 dotted, down and away, in the bullpen,” Freeman said Wednesday (
start at 10:59 of this video). “And I was like, yeah, that’s, it’s incredible. I hope it epitomizes Yoshi as what he was going to do for us two days ago.”
A Game 3 appearance for Yamamoto would have been on one day rest, but pitching in Game 7 was on
no days rest after throwing 96 pitches over six innings in Game 6.
Prior to Game 7, Roberts was asked if Yamamoto was available in a truly all-hands-on-deck situation, and said, “He said he feels good, he is definitely interested.”
By Saturday night, we all were interested.
The Dodgers used their other three starting pitchers — Shohei Ohtani, Glasnow, Snell — by the ninth inning, when Yamamoto was summoned to escape a jam and keep the game tied. He got two very memorable outs in the ninth —
the Miguel Rojas stab and throw home, followed by
a just-entered Andy Pages covering nearly an entire province for his bulldozing catch on the warning track.
Yamamoto followed with a scoreless 10th and — after Will Smith provided the Dodgers’ first lead of the night — a scoreless 11th as well to close out a title. One day after he started and threw 96 pitches in Game 6, Yamamoto got eight outs,
more than any other Dodgers pitcher in Game 7.
Yamamoto is the first pitcher to win three games in a World Series since Randy Johnson in 2001, and he’s the
only pitcher to win three road games in the same Fall Classic.
“We needed a next-level performance from Yamamoto and we got it,” Roberts said.
“It’s unheard of, and I think that there’s a mind component, there’s a delivery, which is a flawless delivery, and there’s just an unwavering will. I just haven’t seen it. I really haven’t. You know, all that combined. There’s certain players that want moments and there’s certain players that want it for the right reasons, but Yoshi is a guy that I just completely implicitly trust and he’s made me a pretty dang good manager.”
Yamamoto is the first Dodgers pitcher to win five games in one postseason, and just
the fifth major league pitcher to do so, joining Randy Johnson (2001 Diamondbacks), Francisco Rodríguez (2002 Angels), Stephen Strasburg (2019 Nationals), and Nathan Eovaldi (2023 Rangers).
“The complete game in Game 2 here, going six innings the other night — last night — and three tonight, is just insane,”
said Smith, who caught every inning of the World Series.
Yamamoto in his two years in Los Angeles
is already tied for the most World Series wins in Dodgers history with four, along with Johnny Podres and Sandy Koufax, who in Games 7 closed out championships 70 and 60 years ago, respectively. Yamamoto to date has only pitched in four World Series games, three of them starts.
His 37 1/3 innings this postseason
are third-most in a single postseason in franchise history, trailing only literal Dodgers legends Orel Hershiser (42 2/3 in 1988) and Fernando Valenzuela (40 2/3 in 1981). Only two years in and two and a half months after his 27th birthday, Yamamoto’s seven career postseason wins
are already third in Dodgers history, trailing only Clayton Kershaw (13) and Julio Urías (eight).
Yamamoto nearly completed a game on September 6 in Baltimore,
taking a no-hitter all the way to two outs in the ninth inning before Jackson Holliday of the Orioles spoiled things with a solo home run. The Dodgers still led 3-1 and only needed one out to secure the victory, but the bullpen had other ideas, suffering their second walk-off loss in a row.
The Dodgers were 0-5 against last place teams to that point in a disastrous road trip through Pittsburgh and Baltimore, and though they were still in first place by a game over the Padres, the Dodgers looked at their most vulnerable this season.
They went 28-9 the rest of the way to win another title.
Yamamoto beginning on August 31 — the start before his near no-hitter — allowed 11 runs (nine earned) in 10 starts plus one relief appearance, posting a 1.14 ERA and 28.9-percent strikeout rate over 71 1/3 innings.
Between the regular season and postseason combined, Yamamoto allowed zero or one run in 20 of his 35 starts with a 2.30 ERA and 234 strikeouts in 211 innings. His season, and especially his postseason, will live in Dodgers lore forever.
“Obviously when you’ve got a guy like Yoshinobu Yamamoto on your team, it makes things a little easier, you know?”
said Kiké Hernández.
