The Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays will conduct workouts at Dodger Stadium Sunday, closed to the public, one day after the Dodgers tied the best-of-seven series at one game a piece with a 5-1 victory in Toronto.
Tyler Glasnow will pitch for the Dodgers in Game 3 Monday, with 41-year-old future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer — who was briefly a Dodger during the team’s 2021 stretch run — pitching for the Blue Jays.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a four-hitter Saturday in the World Series’ first complete game since 2015 and Will Smith hit the tie-breaking home run in the seventh inning.
Yamamoto (3-1) retired the final 20 Toronto batters, the longest streak by a Dodger in the postseason, erasing the previous record of 19 set by Carl Erskine in Game 5 of the 1952 World Series.
Yamamoto became the fifth pitcher in World Series history to retire at least 20 batters to finish his outing and first since 1990 when José Rijo retired the final 20 Oakland A’s batters as the Cincinnati Reds completed a four-game Series sweep.
The last World Series complete game before Saturday came on Oct. 28, 2015, when Johnny Cueto pitched a two-hitter in the Kansas City Royals’ 2-1 victory over the New York Mets in Game 2.
Saturday’s gem was also Yamamoto’s second consecutive complete-game victory this postseason, the first pitcher to accomplish that feat since Curt Schilling pitched three in a row for the Arizona Diamondbacks — Games 1 and 5 of a National League Division Series and Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.
“Outstanding, uber competitive, special,” Dodger manager Dave Roberts said. “He was just locked in tonight. It was one of those things he said before the series, losing is not an option, and he had that look tonight.”
Yamamoto struck out eight and did not walk a batter.
Yamamoto threw 105 pitches, including 23 in the first, when George Springer hit a leadoff double and Nathan Lukes followed with a single, but struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr., induced Alejandro Kirk to line out to Freddie Freeman, the Dodger first baseman, and struck out Daulton Varsho looking to end the inning.
“That was probably our best chance, first and third and nobody out,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “After that, it was kind of few and far between.
“I think he made it hard for us to make him work. He was in the zone, split was in and out of the zone. It was a really good performance by him.”
Yamamoto had pitched the first postseason complete game since 2017 in his last start — a three-hitter in a 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series Oct. 14 in Milwaukee.
Smith hit a 3-2 four-seam fastball from Toronto starter Kevin Gausman 404 feet over the left field wall for his first home run of the 2025 postseason. The home run ended Gausman’s streak of retiring 17 consecutive batters.
Max Muncy hit a solo homer off Gausman two batters later, increasing the Dodgers’ lead to 3-1 in front of a crowd at Rogers Centre announced at 44,607.
Roberts called the two seventh-inning home runs “huge relief.”
“Gausman was throwing the baseball really well,” Roberts said. “We were in between, I thought, offensively with the fastball. When Will got into that 3-2 count, just missed a 3-1 heater, and then they went to the well again and hit a homer, and there was just complete elation.
“We felt that the way Yamamoto was throwing, runs were certainly going to be hard to come by. And then when Max backed it up with another homer, just huge relief.”
Muncy’s home run was his 15th in the postseason, extending his franchise record.
The Dodgers opened the scoring in the first inning. Freddie Freeman doubled with two outs with Smith singling him in two pitches later.
The Blue Jays tied the score in the third. Leadoff batter George Springer was hit by a pitch, moved to second one out later on Guerrero’s single and scored on Alejandro Kirk’s sacrifice fly.
Guerrero was the last Toronto batter to reach base.
The Dodgers add two runs in the eighth. Andy Pages and Shoehei Ohtani hit back-to-back singles and Mookie Betts walked on a full count to load the bases with one out, prompting Schneider to relieve Louis Varland with Jeff Hoffman.
Hoffman’s first pitch was in the dirt for a wild pitch, allowing Pages to score. Hoffman’s next pitch was outside. Schneider ordered an international walk to re-load bases.
Smith grounded into a force out and beat the throw to first as Ohtani scored.
The Dodgers out-hit the Blue Jays, 6-4, with Smith the only player on either team with a multiple-hit game, going 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs.
Both teams left four runners on base. The Dodgers were 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position, Toronto 1-for-4.
Gausman (2-2), the first of four Toronto pitchers, was charged with the loss, allowing three runs and four hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out six and not walking a batter.
“Kev was really good,” Schneider said. “I thought he located the fastball down really well, which made the split kind of open up.
“Just looking back at the home run to Smith, he’s trying to go down and away and it leaked back up and in, then same thing to Max.”
Scherzer and infielder Trea Turner were acquired by the Dodgers on July 30, 2021 in a six-player trade with the Washington Nationals.
Scherzer was 7-0 with a 1.98 ERA in the 2021 regular season as a Dodger, with the team winning all 11 of his starts.
Scherzer was 0-1 with a save with a 2.16 ERA in three postseason starts and a relief appearance as a Dodger. He had been scheduled to pitch in Game 6 of the NLCS but was scratched because of arm soreness. With Walker Buehler pitching on three days rest, the Dodgers lost 4-2 to the Atlanta Braves and the series, four games to two.
Scherzer signed with the New York Mets on Dec. 1, 2021.
Scherzer was 5-5 with a 5.19 ERA in the 2025 regular season for the Blue Jays, who were 9-8 in his starts. This will be his second postseason appearance for Toronto. He was the winning pitcher in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, allowing two runs and three hits in 5 2/3 innings and was credited with the victory in an 8-2 win.