The Los Angeles Dodgers have won back-to-back World Series titles in a thrilling come-from-behind Game 7 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night at Rogers Centre.
While Miguel Rojas and Will Smith are heroes with their clutch home runs, the World Series MVP honors went to starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. After going six innings in Game 6, Yamamoto came out for Game 7, going 2 2/3 innings to help the Dodgers seal the win in extra innings.
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Former Dodgers Pitcher Talks Yoshinobu Yamamoto Heroics
Vote For Your Favorite Dodgers Duo: Ohtani – Yamamoto, Betts – Freeman, Hernandez – Hernandez
After Los Angeles clinched their second straight World Series, the first since the New York Yankees, former Dodgers pitcher Ross Stripling shared his thoughts on Yamamoto’s heroics in Toronto.
“For him to go out there, and I know it’s Game 7, he probably took some Toradol-type thing where he’s not feeling much,” Stripling said on “Dodgers Territory.” “But your body knows deep in there, man — it is fatigued, it is running on fumes.
“And for him to throw those splitters and some of those heaters — it was like a 2-1 heater in to [Vladimir Guerrero Jr.] at 96, black in — I was like, ‘This dude’s a robot.’ That was, I think, one of the best pitches I saw all night. So he’s a World Series MVP, as he should be. That was just an incredible performance throughout the whole series by.”
Yamamoto Left It All Out for the Dodgers
Additionally, Stripling revealed the mental grind Yamamoto was putting himself through health-wise to pitch back-to-back days, based on his experience as a major league pitcher.
“The day after [a start] has turned into a total spa day for a big league starter because of the grind to get through a start the day before and what your body feels like the next day. I used to do nothing — and trust me, I wanted to do something, especially as I got into my low to mid-30s. I wanted to move around the next day and do something, but I couldn’t do it.”
Yamamoto will definitely be dealing with soreness and pain, but going out on the mound to help the Dodgers win the World Series was likely worth it for the 27-year-old.
