Griffin Floyd
The Los Angeles Dodgers fought back to take Game 2 of the 2025 World Series, winning 5-1 behind a complete game from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a late home run barrage to send the series back to Chavez Ravine tied 1-1. Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman ran out of gas late trying to hold serve with Yamamoto, giving up home runs to Will Smith and Max Muncy as the Dodgers took the lead in the seventh inning.
Yamamoto, meanwhile, allowed just four hits in his second consecutive complete game, a feat all but unheard of in this era of bullpen-happy managers. Here are the winners and losers from Game 2.
Winner: Yoshinobu Yamamoto
After slicing through the Milwaukee Brewers for a complete game during the NLCS, right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto did it again on the game’s brightest stage. The 27-year-old phenom became the first pitcher with back-to-back postseason complete games since Curt Schilling did so in 2001, allowing just four hits and five baserunners.
Yamamoto fanned eight batters without allowing a walk, needing just 105 pitches to navigate the Blue Jays’ talented lineup, and gave up just one run on a third inning sacrifice fly. After limiting the damage done by George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Yamamoto was able to tear through the rest of Toronto’s batting order, giving up just one hit to spots four through nine.
The Dodgers bullpen is their biggest weakness, and Yamamoto is doing everything in his power to make sure they don’t have to throw a single pitch.
Winner: Will Smith
Dodgers catcher Will Smith deserves some share of credit for Yamamoto’s heroics, calling a successful game and using each of his batterymate’s six offerings — four-seam fastball, splitter, curveball, cutter, sinker, slider — to keep the Blue Jays off balance during three trips and chance through the order.
Smith also helped his starting pitcher using his bat, going 2-for-4 with three RBI. He got the Dodgers started in the first inning, giving them a crucial 1-0 lead on the road with a two-out single, then reestablished the lead with a solo home run in the seventh off of Blue Jays’ starter Kevin Gausman.
Still not satisfied, Smith picked up a productive out in the eighth inning, a fielders’ choice with the bases loaded to scratch another run across.
Winner: George Springer
Blue Jays designated hitter George Springer deserves a hat tip for a gusty performance in Game 2. Already hobbled after taking a fastball off the knee during the ALCS, Springer legged out a leadoff double in the first inning, doing his best to help the Blue Jays recover from an early 1-0 deficit.
While nothing came of that rally, Springer went under fire again in the fourth inning, taking a 96 mile per hour fastball off his left arm. A trooper to the core, Springer stayed in the game, going first to third on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. single before scoring the Blue Jays’ only run on a sacrifice fly.
The 36-year-old slugger won the 2017 World Series MVP award in his first trip to the Fall Classic, and is showing off his clutch gene once again in the twilight of his career.
Loser: Louis Varland
Blue Jays reliever Louis Varland has struggled during his last two postseason outings, giving up a home run to Cal Raleigh in Game 7 of the ALCS — Springer eventually bailed him out with a three-run homer — before allowing Game 2 to inch out of reach for Toronto.
Varland entered in the seventh inning as Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman began to labor and, although he forced an Enrique Hernández fly out to escape the frame, he then ran into trouble in the eighth, giving up two singles and a walk to load the bases. Jeff Hoffman took over and let two of the inherited runners score (both of them charged to Varland), and the Blue Jays looked up from the bottom of a 5-1 hole at the nearly untouchable Yamamoto, a deficit they couldn’t hope to overcome.
