Yamamoto retires Yankees, Freeman homers again as Dodgers win 4-2 for 2-0 lead in World Series

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed one hit in 6 1/3 innings, Freddie Freeman homered for the second straight night and the Los Angeles Dodgers hit three early longballs off Carlos Rodón to beat the New York Yankees 4-4 on Saturday. 2 for a 2-0 lead in the World Series.

Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernández also went deep for the Dodgers, who saw superstar slugger Shohei Ohtani walks off the field late in the seventh inning with a partially dislocated left shoulder.

After the Yankees closed to 4-2 on Giancarlo Stanton’s RBI single in the ninth against Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia relieved with the bases loaded and retired pinch-hitter Jose Trevino on a first-pitch flyout for the save.

Yamamoto gave up Juan Soto’s home run in the third inning, then retired his last 11 batters.

“I was really looking forward to this game,” he said through a translator, “and I’m glad we had a great ending.”

Soto also singled off the wall in the ninth and scored on Stanton’s one-out hit at third base. Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled and Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Treinen then struckout Anthony Volpe before Vesia completed a four-hitter.

Ohtani was injured after sliding with his feet while stealing second base to end the seventh.

“He had a small subluxation of the left shoulder. We’ll get some testing done tonight or tomorrow, and then we’ll know more in the next few days,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The power was amazing. Range of motion was good, so we are encouraged. But obviously I can’t speculate because (he) hasn’t gotten the scans yet. So once we get the scans we’ll know more. But again, now that the strength and range of motion are good, that’s definitely a positive.”

Game 3 is Monday night at Yankee Stadium. Forty-five of the 56 teams with a 2-0 lead in the World Series have won the title.

“No one said it would be easy,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s a long series, and we have to make it a long series now. We will not back down.”

New York slugger Aaron Judge went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and is hitting .150 with six RBIs and 19 strikeouts in 40 postseason at-bats.

Soto’s tying run on an inside fastball was the only run Yamamoto allowed in two starts and 13 1/3 innings against the Yankees this year. The rookie right-hander left to a huge ovation and gave the tiniest tip of his cap to the fans as he walked to the dugout.

“I think everything worked well for me, from the beginning, the first inning,” he said. “It worked pretty well today.”

Yamamoto joined the Dodgers last December on a $325 million, 12-year contract, a record for pitchers. Together with Ohtani, he created record interest in Major League Baseball in Japan.

Yamamoto was sidelined from June 15 to September 10 due to a strained rotator cuff and this was his best start since the injury.

“Yamamoto, great job tonight and we clearly took the lead early and held on,” Freeman said.

In his longest outing since starting in the Bronx, Yamamoto struck out four and walked two with a five-pitch array, including curveballs, splitters, sliders and cutters. He improved to 2-0 in four postseason starts.

He pitched his best game of the regular season at Yankee Stadium in June, when he allowed three hits in seven shutout innings. Hernández had three home runs and nine RBIs during that three-game series.

A night after Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in Series history, turning a 3-2 deficit with two outs in the 10th inning into a 6-3 victory, Edman put the Dodgers ahead with a solo shot in the second.

After Soto tied the score, Mookie Betts singled with two outs in the bottom half and Hernández homered, on a 3-for-27 slide, to the right-center pavilion.

Freeman, who before Friday had not gone deep since September 16, was greeted with loud cheers before each plate appearance. He filled the count and homered again to right-center.

Playing with a sprained right ankle, Freeman has homered in four straight Series games dating back to Atlanta’s last two games against Houston in 2021. That’s one shy of Astros outfielder George Springer’s record.

“Those six days off were huge for me, between (the) NLCS and the World Series,” Freeman said. “I was able to soothe my ankle. So hopefully with the flight tonight I’ll have a lot of trouble with the flights, so hopefully we can get it down tomorrow and get in a good spot for Game 3.

All three Dodgers home runs came on fastballs by Rodón, whose 31 longballs during the regular season ranked second in the major leagues. Los Angeles had back-to-back Series homers for the second time, after Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager connected against Yankees lefty Ron Guidry for a 2-1 victory in Game 5 in 1981.

Rodón gave up four runs and six hits in 3 1/3 innings.

Los Angeles took a 2-0 lead in the Series for the first time since 1988, when Kirk Gibson’s walk-off homer against Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley won the opener and Orel Hershiser followed with a three-hit shutout. The Yankees are 0-2 for the first time since 2001, when they rebounded to win three straight at home and lose Games 6 and 7 in Arizona.

Yankees RHP Clarke Schmidt and Dodgers RHP Walker Buehler start Monday. Schmidt has a 3.86 ERA in a pair of postseason starts, no decisions in Game 3s against Kansas City and Cleveland. Buehler has also started a pair of Game 3s, allowing six runs over five innings in a 6-5 loss to San Diego and pitching four innings in an 8-0 win at the New York Mets.

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