The Los Angeles Dodgers took a 2-0 lead in the World Series on Saturday, but they were left with the biggest possible question mark as the series heads to New York.
The good for the Dodgers was a stellar start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto against the New York Yankees, while Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernández and Game 1 hero Freddie Freeman all homered off Yankees starter Carlos Rodón in a 4-2 victory.
Yamamoto’s lone hit allowed was a home run from Juan Soto in the third inning. After that, he retired 11 straight batters to finish his biggest start since arriving stateside. His final line: 6 1/3 innings, one hit, one earned run, two walks and four strikeouts. Just about every one of his pitches was working, particularly a splitter that drew four whiffs on seven swings.
The bad for the Dodgers came in the seventh inning, when superstar Shohei Ohtani sustained a painful-looking shoulder injury while attempting to steal second base. He left the field with an athletic trainer, and the Dodgers, plus the MLB league office, will hold their breath as Ohtani’s shoulder is examined.
Manager Dave Roberts referred to the injury postgame as a “little” subluxation. He said the team will do more tests, but early signs were positive.
Things got even more stressful for the Dodgers when the Yankees got the tying run on base in the ninth against Blake Treinen, but Treinen struck out Anthony Volpe, and then Alex Vesia came in and got the final out of the game to secure a 4-2 win after a lot of Yankee traffic in the final frame.
No matter the tension, a 2-0 lead in the World Series is the better place to be, even with one of the game’s best players potentially injured. It’s the Yankees’ backs that are now against the wall, and they’ll need a win with Clarke Schmidt on the mound against Walker Buehler in Game 3 on Monday.
Here’s how it all went down on Yahoo Sports:
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Anthony Rizzo gets hit by a pitch for the second time tonight.
The bases are loaded with Yankees. Still just one out.
This game was ALL Dodgers, and suddenly the Yankees are threatening to flip the script.
An eight-pitch battle between Treinen and Jazz Chisholm Jr. ends with a single to right.
The Yankees have two baserunners, still with one out.
Stanton lasers a ball down the third-base line. It hits the bag and bounces in the air, staying fair. Soto scores to make it 4-2.
Super weird bounce on that one, but the Yankees will take it. They need two more runs before two more outs.
Judge strikes out swinging AGAIN. His at-bats are starting to be tough to watch.
Soto goes to second on a wild pitch. We have a Yankee in scoring position.
Soto bounces one off the right-field wall for his second big hit of the night — and the Yankees’ second hit of the night.
One on, nobody out. The Yankees need three runs.
Blake Treinen is in to try to get the final three outs to close out a 4-1 Dodgers victory.
Initial word on Ohtani is shoulder injury
Mark Leiter Jr. is in for the bottom of the eighth for the Yankees.
He gets three quick outs from Teoscar, Freeman and Edman. This one is wrapping up in a hurry.
Michael Kopech pitches a quick, 1-2-3 top of the eighth to temporarily right the ship.
Yankees are down to their final three outs to avoid an 0-2 hole in this series.
Ohtani walked off the field with a trainer. It appears that he landed badly on his left arm during his slide.
He was already unlikely to have another at-bat in the game, so we will wait to see what the Dodgers share postgame. That could’ve been the biggest moment of this game.
