The Los Angeles Dodgers‘ season is resting on the right arm of Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The right-handed pitcher gets the Game 6 start on Friday night in Toronto, with the Blue Jays leading the World Series, 3-2.
If the Dodgers lose, Toronto is the champion.
If the Dodgers win, they force a Game 7 on Saturday night.
This is the kind of moment the Dodgers signed Yamamoto for. Now it’s up to him to deliver one more time under the brightest lights, just like he has the entire postseason.
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Dodgers contract
Yamamoto signed his contract with the Dodgers on Dec. 27, 2023, after starring in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball for the Orix Buffaloes.
The details:
- Years: 12
- Salary: $325 million
- Signing bonus: $50 million
- Average annual value: $27.1 million
Shohei Ohtani had signed his $700 million deal with the Dodgers just a couple weeks earlier. Yamamoto decided to come aboard, too.
Where is Yoshinobu Yamamoto from?
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is from Bizen, Okayama in Japan.
He made his pro baseball debut in NPB for Orix just three days after his 19th birthday.
Yamamoto quickly became a legend in Japan. He won the Sawamura Award in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the equivalent of MLB’s Cy Young. But he was so dominant that he also won the league MVP award in each of those three seasons.
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto complete game history
These days, Yamamoto is making history in the MLB postseason.
He won Game 2 of the NLCS in complete game fashion, then did it again in Game 2 of the World Series.
He’s the first Dodgers pitcher to throw back to back complete games in the playoffs since Orel Hershiser in 1988.
At this point, no one would bet against Yamamoto doing it again.
