LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out $1 billion for Japanese talent in the offseason and it’s paying off in the playoffs.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic postseason matchup of Japanese-born starters, and the Dodgers got home runs from Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 on Friday and advance to the National League Championship Series.
“It’s pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said.
Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the win, getting pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a Division Series for the third time in five years.
He signed a $325 million, 12-year deal in December, shortly after the Dodgers lured superstar Shohei Ohtani from the Los Angeles Angels with a record $700 million, 10-year contract.
Ohtani and the Dodgers will play the wild-card New York Mets in the best-of-seven NLCS starting Sunday in Los Angeles.
“We’re ready for the next level,” manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers won a decisive Game 5 at home for the first time since taking a 1981 NL Division Series against Houston after a season split into halves following a players’ strike.
“We went through a lot of injuries, a lot of ups and a lot of downs. We fight, we fight and keep going,” star outfielder Mookie Betts said. “All season everybody says the Dodgers are winning the World Series, the Dodgers are winning the World Series. And we get to this series, and all of a sudden we’re the underdog.”
Boasting the majors’ best regular-season record of 98-64, they successfully avoided a third straight NLDS elimination.
“We’d been in a little bit of a DS funk,” said Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations. “For the guys that had been there, they could feel that after we got down 2-1. The new guys wanted no part of that.”