Fascinating facts and figures from World Series Game 2

LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers took a commanding 2-0 lead in the World Series on Saturday in their 4-2 win over the Yankees at Dodger Stadium, hitting three home runs to back Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

How commanding is that lead? In all best-of-seven postseason series, teams taking a 2-0 lead have gone on to win the series 77 of 92 times (84%). Under the current 2-3-2 format, teams winning Games 1 and 2 at home have gone on to take the series 45 of 56 times (80%).

Here’s a look at nine stats and facts from Game 2.

• Tommy Edman got the scoring started with a homer in the second. He played center field on Saturday, becoming the second player in postseason history to homer as both a shortstop, as he did in the NLCS, and center fielder, joining teammate Chris Taylor, who accomplished the feat in 2017. Edman is the seventh Dodger with a World Series homer as a CF, joining Duke Snider (11), Pete Reiser, Taylor, Jim Wynn, Cody Bellinger and Hi Myers.

• In the third inning, Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman hit the second set of back-to-back home runs in Dodgers World Series history. They joined Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager in Game 5 in 1981.

• Freeman became the 11th player to homer in Games 1 and 2 of the same World Series and first since David Ortiz in 2013. The others are Craig Monroe (2006), Reggie Sanders (2002), Barry Bonds (2002), Ted Simmons (1982), Boog Powell (1970), Hank Bauer (1958), Dusty Rhodes (1954), Mickey Cochrane (1930) and Jimmie Foxx (1929).

• It isn’t just the back-to-back games for Freeman. He’s homered in four consecutive World Series games dating back to 2021 with the Braves. That’s tied for the second-longest streak in the Fall Classic, with Reggie Jackson and Lou Gehrig. He trails only George Springer, who did so in five straight.

• Freeman joined Jackson, for the A’s and Yankees, as the only players to homer in consecutive World Series games for multiple teams. The only other players with multiple World Series homers for multiple teams are Corey Seager (LAD, TEX), Dave Henderson (BOS, OAK), Lenny Dykstra (PHI, NYM) and Reggie Smith (BOS, LAD).

• The three homers were tied for the most by a team in the first three innings of a World Series game. The Phillies did in Game 3 in 2022, the Giants in Game 2 in 2002 and the Yankees in Game 2 in 1977. That’s right – it’s the second time it’s happened in a Dodgers vs. Yankees Game 2. It was Ron Cey, Yeager and Smith off Catfish Hunter in 1977.

• Yamamoto was exactly what the Dodgers needed, delivering the 11th start of at least six innings and one or no hits allowed in World Series history. It was the first of those by a rookie and the second by a Dodger, joining Rich Hill in Game 4 in 2018.

• Juan Soto had two hits, including a third-inning homer that temporarily tied the game. It was his first home run this series after he hit three in the 2019 World Series for the Nationals. Soto, who turned 26 on Friday, is the youngest player to homer in the World Series for a second team.

• With Soto and Hernández, this was the third time that two Dominican-born players homered in the same World Series game. The other two instances were both in 2011, when the Rangers and Cardinals faced off in the Fall Classic. Nelson Cruz and Albert Pujols went yard in Game 3, then Cruz and Adrian Beltré did so in Game 6.