Ohtani injury overshadows Yamamoto’s 1-hit start, LA’s 2-0 World Series lead

LOS ANGELES – It was a night of loud noises. A pregame performance from L.A. legend Ice Cube. The ball jumping off the Dodger bats. A standing ovation for Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The gigantic center-field speakers blaring party music in a celebratory setting.

All that Game 2 noise went away when Shohei Ohtani injured his left shoulder on a failed seventh-inning stolen-base attempt and lay on the ground in obvious agony. The Dodger Stadium crowd quieted quickly, then got mighty tense when the Yankees nearly came back in the ninth. But while the injury to their iconic designated hitter hung heavy in the air, the Dodgers were able to feed off the Freddie Freeman frenzy from a night earlier with a 4-2 win to take a commanding 2-0 edge in this best-of-seven.

Freeman, still nursing that sprained right ankle, went deep again, and this time he had the company of NLCS MVP Tommy Edman and All-Star Teoscar Hernández and the backing of 6 ⅓ one-hit innings from Yamamoto. The party quieted when Ohtani went down, and the Yankees had everybody on the edge of their seats when they plated a run and loaded the bases in the ninth. But the Dodgers protected their home turf.

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%). The most recent comeback from a 2-0 deficit came in the 2023 NLCS, with the D-backs rallying against the Phillies. 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%).