ORONTO — It is, in fact, possible to tame the Blue Jays lineup.
It just takes a masterful performance from an ace like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and the World Series is headed to Los Angeles tied 1-1 because of it.
A night after the Blue Jays’ pesky lineup got to Blake Snell and blew the game open against the Dodger bullpen, Yamamoto took matters into his own hands and never let a reliever touch the ball.
Yamamoto retired the final 20 batters he faced to finish off a complete game gem — his second straight — sending the Dodgers to a 5-1 win over the Blue Jays on Saturday night at Rogers Centre.
Against the team that had scored 11 runs on 14 hits in Game 1, Yamamoto shut the Blue Jays down, scattering just four hits while striking out eight and walking none across 105 pitches.
By going the distance for his second straight start, Yamamoto became the first pitcher to throw back-to-back complete games in the postseason since Curt Schilling threw three straight in 2001.
Will Smith and Max Muncy provided the difference-making swings to ensure Yamamoto’s effort would not go to waste.
Kevin Gausman had retired 17 straight batters before Smith took him deep for a 404-foot blast that broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning.
On a full count, Gausman threw a 94 mph fastball on the outer third and Smith cleaned it out, clobbering his first home run of the postseason to quiet the home crowd.
One out later, Muncy matched Smith, sending a home run of his own into the Blue Jays bullpen for the 3-1 lead.
Again, it came on a fastball from Gausman, this one a 96 mph heater on the outside edge in a 2-2 count that Muncy took the other way for an insurance run.
Just like that, Yamamoto had all the support he needed, and he only got stronger as the night went on.
After the Dodgers scratched across two more runs in the top of the eighth for some extra breathing room, Yamamoto responded by striking out the side in the bottom of the frame — against the team that does not strike out.
The 27-year-old right-hander, who turned down the Yankees and Mets to sign a 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers two years ago, lived up to every dollar of that contract on Saturday night.
He was coming off a complete game — the first of his career — against the Brewers in Game 2 of the NLCS, then matched it with the stakes even higher in the Fall Classic.
The Blue Jays had tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the third on Alejandro Kirk’s sacrifice fly.
But that marked the first of 20 straight batters that Yamamoto retired, as Vladimir Guerrero’s single before Kirk’s sac fly represented the Blue Jays’ last base runner of the night.
After the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on Smith’s RBI single, the Blue Jays’ best chance for a big inning had come in the bottom of the frame.
George Springer led off with a double and Nathan Lukes singled to put runners on the corners with no outs.
But Yamamoto wiggled out of trouble by retiring the next three batters in order — two on strikeouts — to strand both runners while throwing 23 pitches.
Yamamoto drilled Springer on the left wrist/hand with a 96 mph fastball to lead off the bottom of the third, and it led to the Blue Jays’ only run on Kirk’s sacrifice fly.
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