ACE IS A THROWBACK TO MOUND MASTERS

Yoshinobu Yamamoto provides novelty, nostalgia by repeating complete-game win for Dodgers.

- JACK HARRIS

DODGERS pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto went the distance again in leading a Game 2 win in the World Series at Rogers Centre in Toronto on Saturday.

Orel Hershiser sat down at a Pasadena restaurant on Saturday night, took control of the remote to a television showing Game 2 of the World Series, then watched in awe at a feat no Dodgers pitcher had accomplished since he achieved it 37 years ago.

In 1988, Hershiser had the kind of postseason run that didn't feel replicable in baseball's modern era. As the staff ace of that year's World Series title team, he threw three consecutive complete games in an iconic October tear: One in the National League Championship Series, then two more in the Fall Classic.

In nearly four decades since, no Dodgers pitcher had thrown back-to-back complete games in the playoffs, and only José Lima in 2004 had even thrown one.

In all of the majors, no one had stacked such outings since Curt Schilling with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001. The World Series hadn't featured a complete game since Johnny Cueto of the Kansas City Royals in 2015.

That scarcity was no coincidence. In recent years, the sport has evolved in a way that prevents such heroics. Starters now are instructed to throw as hard as they can for as long as they can, before inevitably passing the baton to bullpens meticulously crafted to maximize lategame matchups.

"I don't think anybody ever goes into a game thinking, 'CG, "Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said.

"Not in this day and age," third baseman Max Muncy echoed.

But then along came Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the undersized but supremely talented right-hander the Dodgers signed out of Japan two offseasons ago. And along came this postseason, in which the 27-year-old superstar has suddenly turned back the clock.