Toronto Blue Jays fans were quieter Saturday night after a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the World Series, tying up the series 1-1. The devastating game came as Will Smith and Max Muncy both hit solo home runs in the seventh inning against Toronto Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman. Dodgers ace starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw his second straight post-season complete game to also help earn the win.
Dave Roberts, the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has taken great care in these past few years not to act smug or entitled about being the man who guides the best-paid team in American sporting history. That Roberts has more or less pulled it off is one of the great achievements of his stint in that role, but even he cannot hold up the charade any longer.
We're just about a week away from the start of the 2025 MLB playoffs, and that means this year's top contenders are lining up their rotations with hopes of making a deep October run. With that in mind, we decided to rank the starting pitching options for the teams currently in the playoff field with an eye for how they will be used in the postseason.
Right-handed pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-8, 2.72 ERA) is starting for LA, coming off his 8.2 no-hit innings against the Baltimore Orioles in his most recent start before giving up a Jackson Holliday home run in the ninth inning. Opposite Yamamoto will be right-hander Justin Verlander (3-10, 4.09 ERA), who's pitched back-to-back scoreless starts, throwing a total of 11 innings with 16 strikeouts and just six hits allowed.
From the verge of history, to the depths of horror. The kind of unimaginable nightmare even these slumping Dodgers didn't seem capable of. One minute, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was on the precipice of a no-hitter, needing just one out to put his name in the record books. The next, orange Baltimore Orioles jerseys were sprinting around the bases, what had seemed like a storybook night going suddenly wrong.