Dodgers’ Yamamoto clutch in relief, seals World Series MVP

TORONTO — Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s arms were so tired he needed help lifting the World Series MVP trophy.

That’s not much of a surprise, considering how much he threw in the last two games of this seven-game classic.

Yamamoto capped one of the best pitching performances in World Series history with 2⅔ scoreless innings to end the deciding game. That came a day after he threw 96 pitches in the Dodgers’ Game 6 win, and he also threw four batters in Game 2 to help Los Angeles repeat as a champion in a fantasy series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Yamamoto’s heavy workload. “I’m a little crazy for sending him back there. But I thought he was the best option.”

Difficult to argue. Yamamoto got out of a jam in the ninth inning, leaving the bases loaded and the score tied at 4. After getting through the 10th, he got around Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s double in the 11th to seal the 5-4 victory and lock up Los Angeles’ second straight championship.

“Yamamoto is the GOAT!” Roberts shouted moments before the Dodgers hoisted the World Series trophy.

Still, even Yamamoto wasn’t sure he’d get the job done in game seven.

“Before I went in, to be honest, I wasn’t really sure if I could throw there to the best of my ability,” he said through a translator. “But as I started to warm up, because I started to make some adjustments, I started to think I could go out there and do my job.”

Yamamoto, 27, is the fourth pitcher to win Games 6 and 7 of the same World Series, tied with Randy Johnson in 2001, Harry Brecheen in 1946 and Ray Kremer in 1925. Yamamoto and Johnson are the only pitchers since 1969 to win three games in a single World Series.

Yamamoto’s Game 7 cap is sent to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

“It was amazing,” said catcher Will Smith, who hit the Dodgers’ game-clinching home run in the 11th. “You know, I talked to him yesterday. I said, ‘Hey, if you can give us one, we’re going to win.’ He gave us three. It was special. He will have a few months off. I know he’s going to need it, but I’m just happy for him. It was great.”

Signed from Japan to a 12-year, $325 million contract before last season, Yamamoto was 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA against the Toronto Blue Jays. He struck out 15 and walked two in 17⅔ innings, allowing two runs and 10 hits.

“He’s one of the best weapons in the game,” Toronto’s Addison Barger said. “He did a great job. It’s a little weird that he came to pitch today after yesterday. I don’t know what they’re doing there, how he did that without his arm falling off.”

Blue Jays slugger George Springer said Yamamoto’s vast arsenal of pitches is a key part of what makes him so tough.

“He’s elite,” Springer said. “There’s no other way to describe him. He’s elite. He can control six or seven different types of spins, and obviously that division is tough to get to.”

The gem of Yamamoto’s second game was his second straight complete game in the playoffs. He retired the final 20 batters in a 5-1 Dodgers victory.

This came after a three-hit game against Milwaukee in the National League Championship Series, the first complete game in the postseason in eight years.

No pitcher had gone the distance in the Fall Classic since Kansas City’s Johnny Cueto fired a no-hitter against the New York Mets in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series.

Yamamoto wasn’t as sharp in Game 6, allowing one run and five hits in six innings as Los Angeles won 3-1 to force Game 7.

Including a win in Game 2 of last year’s World Series against the New York Yankees, Yamamoto is 4-0 with a 1.13 ERA in four Fall Classic appearances.

Arizona ace Curt Schilling was the last pitcher to throw consecutive complete games in the postseason, throwing three in a row during the 2001 NL Division Series and the NLCS.

Orel Hershiser was the last Dodgers pitcher to go solo in the Series, in Games 2 and 5 against Oakland in 1988. Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax pitched two complete games in the Series each in 1963 and 1965.

Yamamoto pitched 12 complete games over his final three seasons with the Orix Buffaloes of the Japanese Pacific League before joining the Dodgers.