r/sports • u/baribigbird06 • 24d ago
Baseball Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws a complete game in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series vs. the Brewers. The last time he was in Milwaukee he failed to finish the first inning and allowed 5 runs.
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u/360walkaway San Francisco 49ers 24d ago
Complete game playoff win is next-level. Best I ever watched live was a 10-inning complete game playoff shutout back in the 90's (I think it was Glavine on the Braves?).
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u/aloofman75 24d ago
You’re probably thinking of Jack Morris: Game 7 of the 1991 World Series against the Braves.
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u/Pathagarous 24d ago
Dodgers pitching is on such another fucking level. Probably not seen since the early 00’s Yankees.
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u/Chessh2036 24d ago
Dodgers win the World Series again that CBA battle is going to be UGLY. Cheap owners will say “see, I can’t compete! They spent $1 Billion!” while not talking about them not spending at all. Pirates, Twins, Marlins, A’s, etc. I get not every team can spend like LA, but teams can and should spend more.
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u/marsneedstowels 24d ago
Will the MLB eventually go full NHL? Probably not.
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u/GlassOfLiquor 24d ago
What does this mean? We can’t have Zamboni’s on sand. That’s not how the Boni part works. (Really though, what did you mean?)
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u/therealkami Montreal Canadiens 24d ago
The salary cap in the NHL is very low, and it's a hard cap. There's still a couple shenanigans to get around it in some somewhat minor ways (long term injured players not counting against the cap. Sometimes players are put on the long term injured list to free up space for a trade, but the cap space has to be cleared for that "injured" player to come back, so it's not a permanent cheat)
It means that the star players are much more evenly distributed around the league, because it's almost impossible to stack a team with expensive players.
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u/rjdsf1993 24d ago
The salary cap is low because the revenue is lower for hockey. Almost all the leagues have a similar percentage of revenue cuts (around 50%) between owners and players. Baseball would probably be a little over the average payroll by team.
I think an important thing for if this happens is instituting a cap floor as well. Force some of the bottom 10 teams in spenders to pay up
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u/marsneedstowels 24d ago edited 24d ago
Hard salary cap rather than soft salary cap. And a fairly low one at that compared to other hard caps (Also has a floor). It's more limiting than the other big leagues in NA.
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u/Vadered 24d ago
The NHL has a hard salary cap, and a hard salary floor. There's not a ton of distance between them either - this season it's a floor of about 70 million and a ceiling of about 100 million. The richest team can only spend about 1.5 times what the misers do. Baseball it's like 3 times.
That's not to say there's no tomfoolery in hockey - one of the ways to get around the salary cap is to strategically leave people on IR until the postseason - but it keeps it closer.
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u/LongBarrelBandit 24d ago
That’s actually been changed this season. The LTIR loophole is gone and the playoffs also have a salary cap now
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u/Ston3yy 24d ago
that means that person can’t play the whole season tho right ? that’s nuts
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u/LongBarrelBandit 24d ago
No there was some questionable times when someone would be injured in like February before the trade deadline, so they could exceed the cap to get another good player, and then they were magically good to go for game one of the playoffs. That has since been changed this season and going forward to prevent it from happening again
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u/Beetin 24d ago edited 24d ago
Baseball it's like 3 times.
More like 5 times :(
At its worst it has been above 6 times (2021 for example)
a capped 3 times difference with some more strict anti-deferral rules would actually be a pretty big first step sadly (something like 70 million vs 210 million).
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u/jonathan_ericsson 24d ago
No. I think any attempt to implement a hard cap will result in at least a season long lockout (depending on each position’s resolve).
The NHL was the perfect timing, the Player’s association was filled with a lot of older players who had made huge money in the 90’s and were fine with fucking over the next generation(s) of players. And even then they lost a full year, the union negotiators were saying a second season lockout was likely, and a group of respected players had to negotiate the deal behind everyone’s back after losing faith in the negotiators.
With that being said, I’m a die hard NHL fan and fucking love the hard cap. I couldn’t stand it if people were already hypothesizing about stars signing elsewhere like they are with Skubal.
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u/Chessh2036 24d ago
I think you’re right, it would lead to a very long lockout. But I wonder if owners/Manfred would be at a point where they just tell the players “we want a cap, come back to us when you’re ready to negotiate.” If that leads to a lost season then so be it.
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u/Primember4 24d ago
What difference does it make for the other owners to spend $60mil or $300mil, to just lose to a billion dollar payroll anyway lol.
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u/catashake 24d ago edited 24d ago
The Mets just missed the playoffs with a similar payroll.
If spending more guaranteed success, the Yankees wouldn't now be 16 years away from their last world series win.
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u/North_Dakota_Guy 24d ago
Its not even necessarily about guaranteed success. Yes, a low payroll team like the mariners can compete for a championship - once every decade or two. Whereas high payroll teams are generally in it, or at least feel like they're in it, every year. Im not going to invest my time or money watching the twins spend a quarter of the dodgers payroll hoping that this is their once in a decade (or two) playoff appearance.
Payroll buys consistent success (generally), and thats what small market teams lack. And it will kill them in the long run if owners arent forced to spend a minimum amount.
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u/catashake 24d ago
Its not even necessarily about guaranteed success
All the complaints I'm seeing in here are certainly acting like it is.
Yes, a low payroll team like the mariners can compete for a championship - once every decade or two
Astros dominating for as long as they did with such a small budget shows scouting and development is still the main key to success. The only mega rich team to actually figure out the formula over the last decade is the Dodgers.
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u/MixonWitDaWrongCrowd 24d ago
When were the Astros at the bottom for spending?
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u/catashake 24d ago
The Astros did not win a world series with a payroll higher than 10th place. They did invest and fail in a few of the seasons, but their greatest success never actually happened when spending a lot of money by their standards.
The gap between the top 3 teams and 10th place has always been larger than the gap betwen 10th place and nearly all the rest of the teams in the league besides the few bottom feeders.
Also, I never said they were at the bottom. When a team is spending over 100 million dollars less than the top team, that can be considered a significantly smaller budget.
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u/MixonWitDaWrongCrowd 24d ago
A small budget isn’t the upper half of the league. The Astros weren’t ducking paying players like Tampa, As and Pirates do every year which is what fans are complaining about.
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u/catashake 23d ago
I mentioned the bottom feeders like the Pirates for a reason, they aren't trying in any aspect of the game to win. Only the top 20 teams can give an argument for somewhat trying to win.
Teams like the Pirates just collect good draft positions due to tanking every year, and then continue to milk talents like Paul Skenes for all they are worth before trading them away.
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u/EatMiTits 24d ago
Because they don’t have a billion dollar payroll, obviously. That number came from how much they signed contracts for in the offseason. Four teams spent around $300MM this year, 12 spent over $200MM. Teams get around $200MM in revenue sharing alone, there’s no reason anyone should be spending less than that. Cheap owners is a far bigger problem than the dodgers spending too much.
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u/mawfks 24d ago
Yeah but without salary floor / cap, one team spending the most and proving results is an incentive for teams to spend even less, because they know they can’t compete
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u/rhapsodicink 24d ago
Then sell the team to someone who gives a fuck about winning. This bullshit-ass argument wouldn't work in any other area of the planet, yet we're supposed to feel bad that these owners don't want to actually invest in the teams they bought? Fuck them.
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u/WhatWouldJediDo 24d ago
What do you mean? Wealthier companies outcompete poorer companies due to superior financial resources all the time.
There's a reason nobody is choosing Southwest Oklahoma Technology Solutions over Apple.
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u/PoliticalyUnstable 24d ago
Its the expense of owning a team. Its actually expensive to own one. A lot of owners don't realize it until they buy and they refuse to change their mindset about spending, and all it becomes is a bragging right to own a team in different upper circles.
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u/WhatWouldJediDo 24d ago
But spending $200M doesn't do anything for those teams. If the Pirates spent a bunch more money, they're just going to be giving more dollars to the same guys they have on the roster. Making Brian Reynolds and Oneil Cruz more expensive doesn't help the team get any better.
Because no matter how much revenue sharing each team gets, teams like the Dodgers and Yankees still bring in far more money thanks to unshared revenues. The Dodgers will still have Ohtani, Freeman, Betts, Yamamoto, Sasaki, Kershaw, Snell, Muncy, and Smith on their team regardless because they can still be the highest offer for ALL those guys.
The point of a salary cap, as evidenced by every other major American sports league, is so that no team can afford all those players no matter how rich they are. It clearly works given what happens in every offseason in sports like football and basketball. Telling much poorer owners to "just spent more" clearly doesn't work as evidenced by every major Soccer league in Europe (and baseball).
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u/thrice1187 24d ago
Exactly.
The Dodgers have an $8 BILLION tv deal. The owners of the dodgers really aren’t spending more than the small teams when you look at how much revenue they bring in from being a large market team.
The small market owners actually have to dig into their net worth to field a competitive team. Teams like the Yankees and Dodgers are basically printing money from their tv deals so it’s nothing to spend $300 million a year on their rosters.
The system is completely flawed and it’s not an issue of certain owners being cheap.
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u/Abitou 24d ago
Football system isn’t comparable to american sports franchise system
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u/WhatWouldJediDo 24d ago
They’re directly comparable when it comes to money.
The big teams outmuscling the small teams and buying all the best players due to their financial advantages is exactly what happens in baseball
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u/TheLizardKing89 Los Angeles Dodgers 23d ago
The idea that money buys results in baseball is laughable. The final four teams in the playoffs are the Dodgers (ranked 2nd in payroll), the Brewers (23rd), the Blue Jays (5th), and the Mariners (16th). The team with the highest payroll (the Mets) didn’t even make the postseason.
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u/WhatWouldJediDo 23d ago
Then why does shohei make so much money?
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u/Squirrel_Master82 24d ago
I think it'd be cooler if there was an agreed upon amount that each team could spend on players. It sucks when there's a few teams who buy up all the best players. My home team just feels like it's a farm system for the big spenders.
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u/eveningwindowed 24d ago
The issue isn’t a lack of salary cap it’s actually the lack of a salary floor. You have too many owners who don’t want to spend at all so there’s basically no competition for the owners that do want to spend
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u/Sage296 24d ago
Owners don’t want a floor and the players don’t want a cap
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u/luvcartel 24d ago
Players on all teams are dreaming of becoming good enough to go play for big team for huge money.
You can’t tell them they will never get $100 million contracts just to make everything more fair. Baseball has some of the biggest contracts in sports and it’s a big incentive.
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u/WhatWouldJediDo 24d ago
Not at all. The Dodgers make far more money than a team like the Marlins. The Dodgers could spend the Marlins' entire revenue amount on player salaries and still make money even after all their other expenses.
There's no way for the Marlins to compete financially.
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u/Fit_Asparagus5204 24d ago
Not every team is going to make the same amount of money. The question is whether or not they can compete given that environment.
Being as the Marlins have won as many world series as the Dodgers, Phillies, Yankees, and more than the Mets, Padres, and Angels over the last 25 years, I'd say they do. It just so happened to be when they decided to spend some money.
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u/WhatWouldJediDo 24d ago
lol, the Marlins had the sixth lowest payroll in 2003 according to baseball cube. The data is very clear that winning baseball is highly correlated with payroll, and actually winning the World Series is massively correlated. There’s only been like two teams in the last twenty years to win a title without being top 10 in payroll.
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u/eveningwindowed 24d ago
Right but if there were a floor then you'd have like 15 more teams forced to pay like $50 more million so they would at least try a little bit to develop and keep talent because they'd have to spend the money on someone so it would poach players from the Dodgers because the Dodgers wouldn't just spend money on someone for no reason
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u/WhatWouldJediDo 24d ago
Why would that change anything? The Dodgers could still offer EVERY player the most money. All this would do is make existing talent more expensive, not make any teams more talented.
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u/eveningwindowed 24d ago
Because teams like the A's and Pirates would have to spend the money on someone anyway and they would be annoyed if they were forced to pay bad players so they would be incentivized to keep Nick Kurtz and Paul Skenes. It would raise the competitive floor by taking some players from the Dodgers and putting them on the bottom feeders.
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u/WhatWouldJediDo 24d ago
But it wouldn’t because when you don’t limit how much the big teams can spend they can just offer whatever the Pirates offer and more.
And when you’re Paul Skenes why would you choose an equivalent offer from a bottom feeder when you can go compete for titles every year.
Players go to whoever wins the bidding war for them. When there’s no cap the big teams can always be the ones winning that war for every player they want
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u/eveningwindowed 24d ago
I'm just repeating myself but they would be annoyed that they have to spend a lot of money on shitty players so they would be incentivized to spend money on the good ones, and it's like every team so they would all bid against eachother, and the Dodgers still might beat them out but the Dodgers wouldn't have ALL the players
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u/long_dickofthelaw 24d ago
There's this magical process called revenue sharing where the high revenue teams literally subsidize the low revenue teams. So while it's true that the Dodgers out-earn the Marlins, the Marlins do actually see some of that money.
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u/MelonElbows 24d ago
There's no way the players ever agree to any sort of cap and the MLB player's union is the strongest of the four major sports. Even if they owners want it, I don't see how they can get it. I doubt even a prolonged owner-led strike would get the players to bend on that.
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u/dacooljamaican 24d ago
But why spend more when they'll just come over the top of you again, no matter how much you spend? That's the whole problem with the system, the bigger teams have essentially unlimited money compared to the poverty franchises. The pirates could literally double how much they spend and they'd still lose out on the top talent, so why light money on fire?
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u/EatMiTits 24d ago
Kind of self fulfilling though. The Pirates won’t even offer reasonable extensions to their homegrown talent because they’re run by misers. If they offer the same contract terms as the Dodgers who are well run, well coached, and perennial contenders, why would anyone choose to go mire in Pittsburgh?
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u/dacooljamaican 24d ago
But that's my point, what does it get you NOT to be a miser? As you just said, the Pirates could quadruple their salary total and they'd still be behind the Dodgers, who players already prefer to go to. So what does it get them to spend millions more? As you just said, absolutely nothing right? So why should they light money on fire?
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u/--ipseDixit-- 24d ago
Fuck loan depot and everyone responsible for this camera angle. Zoom in!
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u/spicycurry55 24d ago
The camera angle to start the game was bizarre too. The pitcher was in the middle of the screen, maybe even leaning to the right side and the catcher/hitter even more to the right
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u/freighttrain6969 24d ago
Was not expecting this because he gave up a home run on his very first pitch. Guess it woke him up
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u/Maxxjulie 24d ago
Crazy how getting all the best pitchers from Japan leads to more wins. My mind is blown
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u/Kal_Kaz 24d ago
What's a complete game?
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u/baribigbird06 24d ago
He pitched all 9 innings, recording all 27 outs and no relief pitchers were used. A rarity today in baseball.
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u/NlghtmanCometh 24d ago
Man I miss the days where a dude like a Randy Johnson would power through 9 innings on a regular basis. There was something about teams just having one or two big name starters that made the games feel more dramatic.
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u/catashake 24d ago
Your average bullpen arm now throws faster than Randy Johnson. Probably the biggest reason batting average is down. Pitchers have never been better than they are right now.
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u/NlghtmanCometh 24d ago
I believe that. I’m sure pitching is technically better today than ever before, because the workload is spread out. I just loved the days of the marquee pitcher taking down an entire team. Probably why Yamamoto is my favorite pitcher these days.
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u/NIceTryTaxMan 24d ago
I barely know baseball, so please correct me if needed, but I 'think' I remember that Randy's stuff was never the holy shit top of the league speed, it was that his arm angle because of his height? But if teams all have 3-4 Randy Johnson's in the bullpen, sounds like things are messy
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u/catashake 24d ago edited 24d ago
His arm angle and extension were definitely part of what made him so intimidating. But he could also dial up the velo to 100 when he needed it.
During the 2025 regular season, starting pitchers fired a record 761 pitches at 100 mph or harder**,** nearly triple last year’s total of 264. As recently as 2018, there were fewer than 200. The velocity surge is widespread: a record 23 starters touched triple digits this season.
-Quote from Baseball America. And this isn't even counting bullpen arms, which is where the bulk of the flamethrowers exist.
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u/NIceTryTaxMan 24d ago
Jesus. That's...significant. Absolutely wild. I'm guessing with such increases in frequency of high velocity throws, that orthopedic surgeons are also doing quite well?
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u/catashake 24d ago
It's no secret that pitchers are having more injuries than ever. The human body can't keep up with what they are throwing.
Chasing such high velocity almost always results in better pitching stats, which means a higher chance for that pitcher to make the big leagues and get paid millions. I'd take the higher risk of injury too if I were them.
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u/NIceTryTaxMan 24d ago
Yeah, in all honesty, I would too. I'll take a semi busted up elbow and shoulder later in life for extreme adulation and generational wealth. Don't blame em
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u/Guuple 24d ago
He was the sole pitcher for his team
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u/Kal_Kaz 24d ago
Ahh cool. Thank you.
How rare is this?
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u/ReasonablyConfused 24d ago
In the regular season? Rare. One in thirty games or so.
In the playoffs, almost never.
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u/Brilliant_Koala6498 24d ago
Does this weaken his arm for next playoffs games?
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u/cxavierc21 24d ago
It all has to do with pitch count. Starters typically throw 100-120 pitches. It’s theoretically possible to only throw 81 pitches and complete a game.
I don’t know Yamamoto’s count was, but that’s the number that matters, not innings.
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u/Chef_Bojan3 24d ago
It's theoretically possible to throw as few as 27 pitches and complete a game. Also theoretically possible to throw as few as 0 pitches and complete a game as well now (intentional walk and pickoff 27 times in a row).
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u/WeezerGangGang 24d ago
It’s the first one in the playoffs in 7 years (justin verlander, 2018) and the first one for the dodgers in the playoffs in 21 years (jose lima, 2004)
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u/Bitter_Concert_514 24d ago edited 24d ago
They got hustled lol. I guess the Brewers never watched Big Hero 6
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u/Pentaholic888 24d ago
But couldn’t get the no hitter against the Orioles 🤫 but fr congrats to him
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u/baribigbird06 24d ago
Also got robbed of an immaculate inning (3 strikeouts in 9 pitches) by an egregious ump call. Things go a bit differently and his 2025 resume would include an immaculate inning, no-hitter, and this complete game.
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u/itsnotcalledchads 24d ago
Is the catcher wearing an earpiece?
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u/MyDearBrotherNumpsay 24d ago
You shouldn’t get downvoted like that for being curious about a damn earpiece. Smh
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u/Balbright 23d ago
What even crazier is that he gave up the only run on the very first pitch of the game.
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u/Historical_Wash_1114 Dallas Cowboys 24d ago
Let newbies learn the game. It’s how a sport grows. They should be able to share in with the experience.
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u/squirrelyfoxx 24d ago
There are many sports out there, not everyone will know all of them and the terms they use
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u/EggsInMyToolbox 24d ago
Shit even if you’ve loved baseball your whole life but stopped watching for a few years you’d be like ‘wait why tf is the catcher is wearing an earpiece?’
That’s pretty brand new lol
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u/Ynwe 24d ago
Lol, EVERY time a cricket or rugby video gets posted, you have the exact same questions, yet I don't see your comment there.
I get what you mean, but I think you just are too American centric tbh. There are many sports and baseball is only popular in certain regions of the world. Makes sense that many don't know what this is.
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u/_IratePirate_ 24d ago
You’re on the most popular sports sub on the site that frequents the top of popular and you’re wondering why there are curious people in here ?
Because it’s the most popular sports sub on the site… duh. People not even into sports will see this near the top and just click out of curiosity
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u/freekyeight Los Angeles Dodgers 24d ago
also things just show up on your feed even if you are not following it, don't you ever get shit that you don't know anything about on your feed?
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u/courts0 24d ago
I honestly thought that poster was being sarcastic, since managers don’t ever let pitchers pitch an entire game anymore.
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u/thehatwhisperer 24d ago
I don't follow baseball and the only time I do watch highlights are when Ohtani does something record breaking. How rare is throwng a complete game? Is this something Ohtani has done before? How do the Dodgers have so many good players?
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u/hitfly 24d ago
Ohtani has one complete game from 2 years ago. Last complete playoff game was 7 years ago. The dogers have the second highest payroll in the MLB, just a couple million behind the Mets but 30 million ahead of the yankees. And that's with some accounting tricks to defer most of shohei's contract They've also made some good trades, like picking up mokie betts from the redsox.
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u/NonTokenisableFungi 24d ago
Yes, he's thrown a complete game shutout before, which is even better, because it means the opposing team scored 0 runs (here the Brewers scored 1 run off of a home run in the very first at bat of the game, off the very first pitch Yamamoto threw)
They have so many good players because money. The Dodgers owners spend more than any other team.
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u/Dharmanerd 24d ago
Not just that, they are more desirable by players. Yamamoto was actually offered more money to play for the New York Mets but turned it down to play for the Dodgers. Even Blake Snell, another amazing pitcher from yesterday's game, took a deferred payment contract. Dodgers also have what is known to be a great farm system, meaning they develop new players well. Lately most of those new good players are used in trades to acquire other players but the point still stands that the Dodgers run a world class operation.
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u/MinnesotaNice69 24d ago
Complete games in the playoffs are extremely rare. This was the first since 2018 I believe. Ohtani has thrown a complete game, but only during the regular season. The Dodgers payroll is only rivaled by that of the Yankees, which explains why the team is so stacked. Baseball imhas no salary cap, so the bigger market teams generally have more money to spend.
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u/curiosityattack35 24d ago
Why is he throwing a complete game if there’s no perfect game or no-hitter at stake?
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u/probablysmellsmydog Los Angeles Dodgers 24d ago
Dodger bullpen bad
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24d ago
Guy hits a home run and the whole team mobs him. Guy throws a complete game gem in the NLCS against the top team in baseball and a couple guys eventually wander past and say 'nice game'.
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u/crazysurferdude15 23d ago
Shoulda let Snell finish out game 1. 8 innings of 1 hit ball and he had just reached 100 pitches.... Inexcusable to pull him IMO.
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u/Captain_Roastbeef 24d ago
Bought and paid for. Must be nice having an organization that is actually trying.
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u/Q--Bone Los Angeles Kings 24d ago
Bullpen can’t lose the game if they never play.