The Los Angeles Dodgers won and lost Saturday night.
They won Game 2 of the World Series, 4-2, over the New York Yankees to take a two games to none series lead. But they lost superstar Shohei Ohtani to an apparent left shoulder injury on a stolen-base attempt in the seventh inning.
The extent of the injury and Ohtani’s availability for the rest of the series remain unknown.
Before the sight of Ohtani writhing in pain quieted the crowd, it was another joyous night at Dodger Stadium, and the man in the spotlight was Dodgers rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
After his 80th pitch, in the sixth inning, Yamamoto spun off the mound, clenched his fists and roared. He had just snuck a splitter past the bat of Aaron Judge for an inning-ending strikeout. Judge strode back to the Yankees dugout, shaking his head.
That image told the story of this World Series so far. The Dodgers have delivered. Judge and the Yankees are searching for answers. In a crucial Game 2, they recorded only four hits — three of which came in the ninth inning.
Yamamoto gave the Dodgers 6 1/3 innings of one-run baseball. He received a handshake from manager Dave Roberts and a standing ovation from the crowd as he departed. He’d done his job — and then some.
Yankees starter Carlos Rodón’s homer problem reared its ugly head again at the worst time. In the second inning, Tommy Edman homered. (Juan Soto answered.) In the third, Rodón struck out Ohtani before running into two-out trouble: Mookie Betts singled, Teoscár Hernández and Freddie Freeman homered back-to-back, and Edman doubled. Rodón was yanked after 3 1/3 innings, having allowed six hits — half of them homers — and four runs.
The bigger concern in the Bronx is the continued disappearance of Yankees’ star slugger. Judge was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, bringing his postseason line to 6 for 40 (.150).
Soto’s homer was the Yankees’ only hit until the ninth, when he started a rally by singling off the wall against Blake Treinen. Giancarlo Stanton and Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled. Anthony Rizzo was hit by pitch, loading the bases and bringing the tying run into scoring position. But Treinen whiffed Anthony Volpe, and lefty Alex Vesia induced a first-pitch fly out from pinch-hitter Jose Trevino.
The Yankees will start Clarke Schmidt opposite Dodgers starter Walker Buehler in Game 3 Monday night at Yankee Stadium.
