Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who’s been a force to be reckoned with in the postseason just had the shortest playoff outing in his career.
Yamamoto went 2 ⅔ innings while throwing 75 pitches, and gave up three runs, four hits, two walks, and had one strikeout in Game 2 of the NLCS on Monday night.
Before Monday, Yamamoto’s shortest outing happened in his playoffs debut against the San Diego Padres in 2024.
In the third inning of a tied 1-1 ballgame, the Brewers figured out the reigning World Series MVP as they were heavily working the count against him.
Before facing Christian Yelich as his final batter, Yamamoto had a 12-pitch battle against Jake Bauers.
Facing a 3-2 count, Bauers fouled off six pitches in a row until a ball was thrown in the dirt, which resulted in him being walked and loading the bases. According to the FOX broadcast, it was longest at-bat of Bauers’ career.
The war with Bauers came before he threw a combined 22 pitches to David Hamilton, Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, and William Contreras during the inning.
With Hamilton, Turang, and Bauers still on the basepaths, Yamamoto gave up a two-RBI single to Yelich, giving the Brewers an early 3-2 lead.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts then came out and pulled Yamamoto from the game. Afterward, Roberts was asked why he pulled his postseason legend so early.
“For me, I felt we had to stop the damage right there.”
Lefty specialist Alex Vesia replaced Yamamoto, and did his job admirably, stopping the Dodgers’ bleeding by striking out Garrett Mitchell to end the inning.
Los Angeles quickly responded to the deficit by tacking on two runs following an errored throw by Logan Henderson in the fifth inning.
Unlike Game 1 of this NLCS, this game is going to be a marathon decided by the bullpens.
