The Los Angeles Dodgers are two wins away from a World Series championship. The Dodgers hung on to beat the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday night (LA 4, NY 2), and now have a 2-0 series lead. They were one out away from being down 1-0 in the series Friday night. Then Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam. Now the Dodgers have a 2-0 series lead, albeit with an injured Shohei Ohtani. Game 3 is Monday at Yankee Stadium.
You have to go back to 1996 for the last time a team erased a 2-0 series deficit to win the World Series. That team? The Yankees. They came back to beat the Braves in that Fall Classic for the first of their four championships from 1996-2000. New York will have to hope that comeback ability is in their organizational DNA. The Dodgers won an instant classic in Game 1 and were able to avoid disaster in the ninth inning of Game 2.
Here are a few takeaways from LA's Game 2 win.
1. The Dodgers hammered Rodón
Los Angeles was the best hitting team against left-handed pitchers during the regular season, making Carlos Rodón's Game 2 start of paramount importance. The Dodgers took advantage Saturday. They tagged Rodón for four runs in 3 ⅓ innings, including three home runs. Tommy Edman took Rodón keep in the second, then Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman hit back-to-back homers in the third. To the action footage:
Hernández and Freeman are the second set of Dodgers to hit back-to-back homers in the World Series, joining Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager in Game 5 in 1981. That, of course, came against the Yankees as well. Dating back to 2021, Freeman now has a four-game homer streak in the postseason. Only George Springer (five games from 2017-19) has a longer streak.
Rodón allowed 31 homers during the regular season, the second most in baseball, and 21 of the 31 came off his fastball. That was the second-most homers off any pitch type in MLB (Shota Imanaga allowed 22 homers on his fastball). In Game 2, the Dodgers hit all three homers off Rodón's fastball. He threw 38 heaters and the Dodgers swung and missed once. They were on him.
The three home runs are tied for the most ever allowed by a Yankee in a World Series game. It's happened several times, and the last to do it before Rodón was David Wells in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series against the Padres. Greg Vaughn (two) and Tony Gwynn took Wells deep that game. Unlike Saturday night, the offense picked Wells up, and the Yankees won that game. No such luck this time.
2. Yamamoto is worth the money
The Dodgers outbid several teams (including the Yankees) to sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the three-time reigning MVP in Japan, and it was for moments like this: to shut down one of the highest scoring offenses in baseball in a World Series game. The regular season is important, for sure, but games like Game 2 is why the Dodgers gave Yamamoto a record $325 million contract.
Other than a Juan Soto solo homer in the third inning, Yamamoto was brilliant in Game 2, holding New York to one hit (Soto's home run) and two walks in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out four and retired the final 11 batters he faced after the Soto homer. Yamamoto threw 86 pitches, his most since returning from a shoulder injury on Sept. 10.
Prior to Game 2, the last time Yamamoto completed six innings in a start was June 7, when he fired seven shutout innings at Yankee Stadium. He struck out seven that night, allowed two hits, and threw his three fastest (and 11 of his 13 fastest) pitches as a Dodger. In two starts against the Yankees in 2024, Yamamoto allowed three hits in 13 ⅓ shutout innings.
Given the stakes, the case can be made Game 2 was Yamamoto's best start as a Dodger. You could also argue his two best starts as a Dodger came against the Yankees.
3. The Yankees threatened in the ninth
The rally ultimately full short, but the Yankees did make things interesting against Blake Treinen in the ninth inning. Soto hit a long single off the wall to begin the inning, Giancarlo Stanton smoked a ball off the third base bag, Jazz Chisholm Jr. stroked an RBI single, and Anthony Rizzo took a pitch to the midsection to load the bases with one out.
The Yankees pushed a run across to cut the deficit to 4-2, though the Dodgers were able to escape the inning when Treinen struck out Anthony Volpe, and Alex Vesia got Jose Trevino to fly out to center to end the game. Trevino pinch-hit for the lefty swinging Austin Wells, who was 0 for 3 in the game.
The decision to pinch-hit Trevino against the lefty Vesia says more about New York's thin bench than it does Trevino. Trevino, the backup catcher, hit .189/.282/.344 against lefties this year. The other option was top prospect Jasson Domínguez, a switch-hitter who is significantly better against righties. He slashed .185/.264/.246 against lefties in Triple-A.
Through two games, the World Series margins are razor thin. The Dodgers rallied in the tenth inning in Game 1 when Freeman hit a walk-off homer. The Yankees put ducks on the pond in the ninth inning of Game 2, but Trevino flew out, and the Yankees didn't have a better pinch-hitter option. Two close games, but also a 2-0 series lead for the Dodgers.
4. Ohtani left with the trainer
The Dodger Stadium crowd was alive all night -- Ice Cube got things started with a quick two-song pregame concert -- and then suddenly the crowd hushed over in the bottom of the seventh inning. Shohei Ohtani slid into second base awkwardly on a stolen base attempt, and exited the game with the trainer. He was favoring his left arm. Here's the play:
Manager Dave Roberts said after the game that Ohtani suffered a subluxation of his left shoulder and will undergo testing Sunday, but said that the team is "encouraged" by his strength and range of motion. Needless to say, losing Ohtani for any length of time would be a devastating blow for the Dodgers, even with a 2-0 series lead. They're already playing a hobbled Freeman. A compromised Ohtani would be bad news.
Up next
Sunday is an off-day, then Game 3 is Monday night at Yankee Stadium. The Dodgers are two wins away from the eighth World Series title in franchise history and, historically, teams with a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven have gone on to win the series 84% of the time. Righties Clarke Schmidt and Walker Buehler are the scheduled Game 3 starting pitchers.