Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one hit over 6 1/3 innings, retiring the final 11 batters, as the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees, 4-2, Saturday evening in Game 2 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers hit three home runs, including back-to-back shots by Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman in the third inning, to take a 2-0 series lead.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series will be played Monday at Yankee Stadium.
Yamamoto did not allow a baserunner after Juan Soto hit a four-seam fastball 386 feet over the right field fence in the third inning, tying the score, 1-1. Yamamoto (2-0) struck out four and walked two as the Dodgers won for the fourth time in his four postseason starts.
Relievers Anthony Banda and Michael Kopech held the Yankees hitless over the next 1 2/3 innings, with Banda hitting Anthony Rizzo with a pitch for New York’s only baserunner over that span.
Blake Treinen allowed a leadoff single to Soto in the ninth. Soto advanced to second on Blake Treinen’s wild pitch and scored one out later when Giancarlo Stanton’s ground ball hit third base, popped into the air and went over third baseman Max Muncy’s head into left field.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with a single and Treinen hit Rizzo with a full-count four-seam fastball to load the bases.
Alex Vesia relieved Treinen and retired pinch-hitter Jose Trevino on a fly out to center fielder Tommy Edman for his first save of the postseason.
The Dodgers opened the scoring in the second on Edman’s home run.
Left-hander Carlos Rodón (1-2), the first of five Yankee pitchers, was charged with the loss, allowing four runs and six hits over 3 1/3 innings, striking out three and walking three.
Dodger designated hitter Shohei Ohtani suffered “a little left shoulder subluxation,” attempting to steal second base in the seventh inning, manager Dave Roberts said in his postgame news conference.
“We’re going to get some tests at some point tonight, tomorrow, and then we’ll know more in the next couple days,” Roberts said. “But the strength was great. The range of motion good. So we’re encouraged. But obviously I can’t speculate because we don’t get the scans yet. So once we get the scans, we’ll know more. Again, with the strength, the range of motion good, that’s certainly a positive.”
Ohtani remained on the ground after being tagged on the slide, clutching his left arm and wincing in pain before being led off the field by trainers.
“I think he slides on his left knee, right foot forward, that’s my assumption, and then he probably — as he put his hand down, it probably subluxed out,” Roberts said.
A shoulder subluxation is defined as partial or incomplete dislocation of the glenohumeral joint or translation between the humeral head and glenoid fossa while the humeral head is in contact with the glenoid fossa, according to the Bethesda, Maryland-based National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health.
“Obviously when you get any one of your players that goes down, it’s concerning,” Roberts said. “But after kind of the range of motion, the strength test, I felt much better about it.”
This is the 57th time a team has taken a 2-0 lead in the World Series. Of the previous 56, 45 have gone on to win the World Series, 80.4%. The Dodgers have held 2-0 leads in four previous World Series, going on to win in 1963 and 1988 but lose in 1956, when they were based in Brooklyn, and 1978.