Old school baseball is back.

When you don’t have a great bullpen, just get a starter who can go all nine innings.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw his second straight complete game in the postseason, beating the Blue Jays 5-1, and evending the World Series at a game apiece.

This used to happen more often, but hasn’t happened since Curt Schilling through back-to-back complete games in 2001. Madison Bumgarner had multiple complete games in the 2014 postseason, but none consecutively. The last Dodger to pitch consecutive complete games in the post season was Orel Hershiser in 1988.

It was an international battle. The Blue Jays had the weight of the entire country of Canada on their shoulders. Yamamoto had the weight of Japan on his.

After three innings, Yamamoto was at forty-six pitches. Usually, that’s when today’s skittish managers start getting the bullpen going. But after eight innings, he was at ninety-three pitches. He retired the final twenty Blue Jays batters and struck out eight overall. This is a team that doesn’t usually strike out.

In the 1967 World Series, Bob Gibson pitched three complete games, winning all three as his Cardinals beat the Red Sox in seven games.

One more complete game and Yamamoto is in legendary air. 

*****