Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s last two starts against the Brewers could not have been more different

The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t just put the Milwaukee Brewers in a 2-0 hole; they yanked away Milwaukee’s margin for error and the comfort of home in a matter of 18 innings. After two tense games in which Los Angeles dictated tempo and leveraged every inch of run prevention, the series heads west with the Dodgers fully in control. The tone-setter in Game 2 wasn’t a late homer or a defensive gem. It was Yoshinobu Yamamoto resetting the entire conversation about who holds the leverage on the mound.

Baseball is a game of adjustments, and Yamamoto just authored a textbook. The last time he saw Milwaukee, he didn’t survive the first inning, five runs in two-thirds of a frame, the kind of outing that sticks in a lineup’s memory and becomes a scouting report all by itself. This time, with the lights bright and the stakes higher, he turned that very memory into a weapon. He tunneled better, sequenced cleaner, and never gave the Brewers the same look twice. By the middle innings, Milwaukee’s swings had the tentative tell of hitters guessing between speeds rather than hunting a zone.

Brewers run out of answers for a locked-in Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Talk about flipping the script. Yamamoto went the distance on 111 pitches, allowing just three hits and one earned run, with the lone blemish a Jackson Chourio solo shot, along with one walk and seven strikeouts. It wasn’t dominance by sheer velocity; it was domination by design. He established strike one, expanded late, and lived on the edges where called strikes and soft contact meet.

The ripple effect was enormous. A complete game in October is more than a star turn — it’s a bullpen holiday, and the Dodgers happily took it on a getaway day. With the series swinging to Los Angeles, Dave Roberts now carries a rested relief corps and the freedom to get aggressive with leverage in Game 3. That’s the kind of hidden series math that turns a 2-0 lead into a vise: every matchup can be optimized, every fireman is available, and every Brewers rally will have to beat both the lineup card and the bullpen gate.

For Milwaukee, the challenge is twofold. First, erase the ghost of this Yamamoto start and get back to the blueprint that worked when they swept L.A. in the regular season. Whether it’s creating early-count damage or leaning into the speed game, the Brewers have to disrupt the pitcher’s cadence before the seventh, because once the Dodgers’ defense takes over, the door usually slams shut.

None of that changes the reality that Los Angeles now owns the series texture. Up 2-0, headed home, and rested everywhere that matters, the Dodgers don’t have to be perfect. They just have to keep being themselves. If Milwaukee wants a different ending, it starts with punching first in Game 3.