No call to arms as Dodgers can forgo bullpen

Technically, Roki Sasaki was available to pitch in relief for the Dodgers on Tuesday night.

- DYLAN HERNÁNDEZ COLUMNIST

ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times YOSHINOBU YAMAMOTO is the first Dodgers starter to pitch a complete game in the postseason since José Lima in Game 3 of the 2004 NL Division Series.

Realistically, he wasn't.

"I wouldn't say unavailable,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “But it is unlikely that we will use him.”

Without the most electric arm in their unreliable bullpen, how could the Dodgers record the final outs required to win Game 2 of the National League Championship Series?

Here's how: By making their bullpen a nonfactor.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto tossed a complete game, becoming the first Japanese pitcher to do so in a postseason game. The offense spared Roberts another late-inning scare by tacking on insurance runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

The result was a 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field that extended the Dodgers' lead in the NLCS to two games to none.

Two more wins and the Dodgers will advance to the World Series for the third time in six seasons. Two more wins and they will be positioned to become baseball's first repeat champions in 25 years.

Ninety-three teams have taken a two-games-to-none lead in a best-of-seven postseason series.

Seventy-nine of them have advanced.

In other words, this series is over.