TORONTO — Temperatures dipped into the 20s (or below zero if you prefer Celsius) in Toronto on Tuesday.
But Yoshinobu Yamamoto brought the most chill.
Returning to the mound where he became a World Series legend, Yamamoto allowed just one hit in the first five innings and the Dodgers held on to beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-1, to remain undefeated on the road this season.
The Dodgers will try to extend their winning streak to six games and make it a perfect road trip with Shohei Ohtani pitching on Wednesday afternoon.
Yamamoto made quick work of the Blue Jays through the first five innings. He struck out the side in the first inning and retired 15 of the first 16 batters he faced (including 12 in a row). Jesus Sanchez doubled over Kyle Tucker’s head in right field to start the second inning, the Jays’ only baserunner through five innings.
Yamamoto struck out six in the first five innings but mainly lived on soft contact. The Blue Jays only managed to hit two balls in the first five innings with exit velocities deemed “hard-hit” by Statcast standards (over 95 mph) – Sanchez’s double (96.9 mph) and a fifth-inning fly out by Nathan Lukes (97.6 mph).
After bludgeoning opposing pitchers for 45 runs over the previous four games, the Dodgers took a gentler approach Tuesday against Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman to build a 3-0 lead.
Hyeseong Kim wasn’t in Tuesday’s lineup until just before game time when Miguel Rojas was scratched due to a family matter. But Kim made the most of his unexpected playing time. He led off the third inning with a double and moved to third when Gausman hit Alex Freeland in the back of the helmet after fielding his sacrifice bunt attempt. Shohei Ohtani followed with a laser off the right field wall. Kim scored as Ohtani was held to a single.
With one out and runners at the corners, Will Smith bounced into a force out, beating the throw to first base to avoid a double play and allowing Freeland to score from third.
Two innings later, Kim manufactured another run, starting with a leadoff walk. Gausman was called for a balk – disputed by Jays manager John Schneider, who was ejected – and Kim scored on a single by Freeland.
The Jays finally got to Yamamoto in the sixth inning on a leadoff bloop single by Andres Gimenez and an RBI double by George Springer. But he got a pair of grounders with two runners on and escaped further damage.
Yamamoto became the first Dodgers starting pitcher to touch the seventh inning when he went back out for another inning. He didn’t touch it for long, giving up a leadoff double to Kazuma Okamoto after an ABS challenge overturned a strikeout and a bunt single.
Alex Vesia replaced Yamamoto and walked the first batter he faced to load the bases with no outs. He left them there, getting a fly out, strikeout and then another fly out, leaving the Blue Jays 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position in the game.
An error led to an insurance run on a Kyle Tucker RBI single in the ninth, giving Edwin Diaz more margin for error before he closed it out with a scoreless ninth.