Jackson Chourio ambushed Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who recovered to help the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1, in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
The NLCS now shifts to Dodger Stadium with the Dodgers holding a 2-0 lead.
Chourio sent Yamamoto’s first-pitch fastball over the wall in right-center field to give the Brewers an early lead. The leadoff home run was a third in Brewers postseason history, with Chourio also hitting one in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series in 2024, and Corey Hart in Game 6 of the 2011 NLCS.
That wound up being the lone run Yamamoto allowed as he navigated all nine innings.
The Dodgers became the first team to have two starting pitchers complete at least eight innings in consecutive playoff games in the same series since former San Francisco Giants teammates Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum in Games 4 and 5 of the 2010 World Series.
Blake Snell and Yamamoto also are the first pair of Dodgers pitchers to go eight or more innings in consecutive postseason starts since Orel Hershiser and Tim Belcher in Games 1 and 2 of the 1988 NLCS.
Yamamoto held the Brewers to three hits and finished with seven strikeouts. It was a markedly different performance from his start at American Family Field in July, when Yamamoto recorded just two outs in the worst outing of his career.
Yamamoto’s complete game was a first for the Dodgers in the postseason since José Lima against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 3 of the 2004 NL Division Series.
The Brewers’ lead was quickly erased thanks to Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages putting together big swings in the second inning. Hernández’s was on a hanging curveball from Freddy Peralta that was pulled down the line for a game-tying home run.
Then after Kiké Hernández kept the second inning alive with a two-out single, Pages broke out of his slump by sending an RBI double into the right-field corner.
Max Muncy then provided more cushion with a two-out solo home run off Peralta in the sixth inning. Muncy’s line drive to center field this time had enough carry to get over Sal Frelick’s leaping attempt.
Hernández’s leadoff double in the seventh inning later led to a run when Shohei Ohtani snapped the Dodgers’ hitless drought with runners in scoring position by pulling an RBI single past the drawn-in infield.
Tommy Edman added an RBI base hit in the eighth inning.
Muncy breaks Dodgers postseason record
Muncy’s home run was the 14th of his postseason career with the Dodgers, which is a new franchise record. He previously had been tied with Corey Seager and Justin Turner.
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