By STEVE MEGARGEE AP Sports Writer
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Relying on an old-school pitching strategy has the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers two wins from returning to the Fall Classic.
As long as their star-studded rotation can continue working deep into games, they don’t need to worry about their inconsistent bullpen.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw a three-hitter for the first postseason complete game in eight years as the Dodgers beat the slumping Milwaukee Brewers 5-1 on Tuesday to extend their lead in the National League Championship Series. Yamamoto’s gem in Game 2 came one night after two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell allowed one hit over eight shutout innings for a 2-1 victory.
“We said before this postseason started, our starting pitching was going to be what carried us,” said Max Muncy, who set a Dodgers record by hitting his 14th career postseason homer. “And so far it’s been exactly that.”
It’s a dramatically different approach than the one the Dodgers took last year, when starting pitchers worked six innings in only two of their 16 postseason games. They have seven quality starts in eight playoff games this year, and their starters own a 1.54 postseason ERA.
That stellar pitching has the Dodgers closing in on another World Series berth even with the bullpen struggling and three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani going 2 for 25 at the plate over his last six games.
After winning nine of their last 11 regular-season games, the Dodgers are 7-1 in the postseason.
“Our entire team is playing the best baseball we’ve played all year,” manager Dave Roberts said. “The focus, the concentration level is at the highest, and we’re peaking at the right time.”
Teoscar Hernández also homered to help the Dodgers leave Milwaukee with a 2-0 advantage in the best-of-seven series, which shifts to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Thursday. Yamamoto allowed a home run to Jackson Chourio on the first of his 111 pitches — 81 strikes — but shut down the Brewers the rest of the way.
The $325 million right-hander struck out seven and walked one during his first complete game in two major league seasons. He retired his final 14 batters and didn’t give up a hit after the fourth inning.
“I reset my mind (after Chourio’s homer) and then I just focused on executing my own pitches,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter.
The previous postseason starter to go the distance was Justin Verlander when he tossed a five-hitter with 13 strikeouts for Houston against the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the 2017 ALCS on Oct. 14, 2017 — eight years ago to the day.
Yamamoto’s complete game was the first for Los Angeles since Gavin Stone’s four-hit shutout on June 26 last year at the Chicago White Sox. The last Dodgers pitcher to throw a complete game in the postseason was Jose Lima against St. Louis in Game 3 of their 2004 NL Division Series.
“I established my rhythm and then I dictated the tempo based off the game,” Yamamoto said. “So that was great.”
This is the first time since 1970 that both LCS road teams started 2-0. The Seattle Mariners own a 2-0 lead over Toronto in the ALCS heading into Game 3 on Wednesday in Seattle.
Twenty-four of the previous 27 teams that took the first two games on the road in a best-of-seven series with a 2-3-2 format have gone on to win. The three teams to come back after losing Games 1 and 2 at home all came in World Series: the 1985 Kansas City Royals against the St. Louis Cardinals, the 1986 New York Mets against the Boston Red Sox, and the 1996 New York Yankees against the Atlanta Braves.
“You guys might have us counted out,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “And I understand that 90% of the teams that have been in this situation don’t win the series. But this team has been counted out a lot this year. And I think there’s some fight left in them.”
The Brewers pulled out all the stops Tuesday as they tried to avoid that 2-0 deficit. Former slugger Eric Thames got on the field to exhort fans just before the game and popped open his jersey to reveal his bare chest.
Chourio then delighted a sellout crowd with his fourth career postseason homer, tying Orlando Arcia and Prince Fielder for the Brewers record. It was the fifth leadoff homer of this postseason, tying an MLB mark originally set in 2007.
That seemed like a foreboding start for Yamamoto, who lasted just two-thirds of an inning in a 9-1 loss the previous time he pitched in Milwaukee. But he bounced back and silenced the Brewers the rest of the way.
The NL Central champions, who led the majors with 97 wins during the regular season, have five hits in the series.
“We’ve just got to play better,” said slugger Christian Yelich, who is 0 for 13 in his last four games. “It’s not an ideal start to the series, by any means. Just have to continue to battle and find a way to get the offense going. I’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be better. It’s just facts.”
Los Angeles became the first team to have consecutive postseason starts of at least eight innings in the same series since San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum did it in Games 4 and 5 of the 2010 World Series against Texas.
After Chourio’s homer, the Dodgers wasted no time coming back against Brewers ace Freddy Peralta.
Hernández, whose baserunning mistake contributed to the Brewers’ unusual 8-6-2 double play in Game 1, sent a 3-2 curve over the left-field wall for his fourth homer of this postseason. One out later, Kiké Hernández singled and scored on Andy Pages’ double.
Pages had been 1 for 27 in the postseason before delivering his shot into the right-field corner.
Muncy extended the lead to 3-1 with his two-out homer in the sixth, which came on Peralta’s 97th and final pitch. The Dodgers added two more runs on RBI singles by Ohtani in the seventh and Tommy Edman in the eighth.
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