TORONTO – This is why New York Mets owner Steve Cohen flew to meet him in Japan. Why the New York Yankees put him in a suite at a swanky Manhattan hotel that previously had been used by Taylor Swift. Why the San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies all made their own elaborate pitches as well.
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Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a free agent entering his age 25 season, was worth the effort. And now that he’s simultaneously making major-league history and pointing starting pitching toward a brighter future, he appears well worth the 12-year, $325 million contract the Los Angeles Dodgers awarded him in December 2023, a record for a pitcher.
Yamamoto has thrown two straight complete games in the postseason, after a regular season in which the entire league produced only 29. His second CG — a four-hit, 105-pitch masterpiece in the Dodgers’ 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night, tying the World Series at one game each — was arguably more breathtaking than the first.
Against the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, Yamamoto allowed a leadoff homer by Jack
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