Los Angeles Dodgers Look Unstoppable Behind Back-to-Back Pitching Masterclasses

As they head into the third week of October, the Los Angeles Dodgers finally have that look about them again.

Infallibility, invincibility, inevitability.

It's amazing how back-to-back nights of dominating starting pitching performances can reset expectations and reassert an air of confidence.

Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto did left-hander Blake Snell one inning better Tuesday night, shaking off a leadoff home run in the first and never letting up or even leaving a 5-1 victory against the Milwaukee Brewers that gave Los Angeles a 2-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.

Yamamoto allowed three hits and a walk, striking out seven and needing 111 pitches in the first complete game by any major leaguer in the postseason in eight years, and the first for a Dodgers pitcher in 21 years.

He took the baton from Snell, who allowed just one hit to go with no walks and 10 strikeouts the night before in a 2-1 victory in Game 1 at American Family Field that included perhaps the strangest double play ever recorded on video.

No such oddities happened in Game 2, but a number of rarities did, starting with Yamamoto, who didn't pitch a complete game during the regular season — no Dodgers pitcher did — though he had gone the distance numerous times in seasons past for the Orix Blue Wave in Nippon Professional Baseball, including in the 2023 Japan Series.

The Dodgers paid a hefty fee to Orix to bring Yamamoto to MLB a season ago, and he became far and away their best pitcher in 2025 at age 27. He has posted a 2.66 ERA and 306 strikeouts in 263 2/3 innings so far with the Dodgers over two seasons, and his overall numbers in the playoffs are similar.

Yamamoto really stepped it up against the Brewers, who had beaten the Dodgers in all six meetings during the regular season and finished with the best record in the league, putting themselves in position to reach the World Series for the first time since 1982.

Against the Dodgers, Milwaukee failed to record a single plate appearance with a runner in scoring position, and generated their only run on Jackson Chourio's leadoff homer on the first pitch any Brewers player saw. Yamamoto also allowed singles to Brice Turang in the third and Sal Frelick in the fourth, plus a walk to Joey Ortiz in the fifth — and that was it.

Yamamoto and Snell being so dominant simplifies the Dodgers formula for winning.

They won 93 games in the regular season, taking the NL West for the fourth straight time and for the 12th time in 13 years, but they played their best only infrequently. The starting pitching underperformed as a unit, never finding a consistent groove in part because of injuries. Yamamoto made 30 starts but Snell had just 11 overall, with nine of them coming after July.

The bullpen is still searching for an effective path. But if there's no need for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to even get his relief pitchers involved, he has time to find the right bullpen formula.

With the best-of-seven series moving to Los Angeles for up to three games beginning Thursday night, the Dodgers need two more wins to reach the World Series for the second straight season and for the fifth time since 2017. They're also trying to become the first team to repeat as World Series champions since the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays.

Snell and Yamamoto dominating lets the lineup do its thing, even if Shohei Ohtani isn't driving the engine and most of the runs come from the bottom half of the lineup. Sixth-place hitter Teoscar Hernández, followed by Tommy Edman, Enríque Hernández and Andy Páges, combined to go 7-for-14 with three runs scored and three RBIs in Game 2. Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith combined for three hits and one RBI.

Teoscar Hernández's solo home run in the second, and Max Muncy's in the fifth were the biggest blows for the offense. Muncy's drive to center, which eluded a leaping attempt by Frelick by a few inches, looked a lot like the 400-foot double play he improbably grounded into with the bases loaded in Game 1.

No shenanigans this time.

Hernández blamed himself for poor base running after he was forced out at the plate on Muncy's drive. So, he avoided Milwaukee's defense entirely in Game 2 by hitting a curveball from right-hander Freddy Peralta 105.9 mph off the bat at a 39-degree angle an estimated 377 feet to left to tie the score.

Milwaukee had a lead for about 10 minutes.

Ohtani added an RBI single in the seventh but struck out three more times and is batting .147/.275/.324 overall in eight postseason games. But that's OK for the moment because of Snell and Yamamoto.