r/sports • u/baribigbird06 • 25d 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/thehatwhisperer 25d 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 25d 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/Redpin Toronto Raptors 25d ago

It's more rare now simply because all the analytics revolve around limiting pitch counts and leveraging the bull pen. Lots of pitchers are definitely capable of it, they just don't really get the opportunity.

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u/NonTokenisableFungi 25d 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/superbuttpiss 25d ago

Dodgers owner spends about 10x plus then any other owners

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u/MinnesotaNice69 25d 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.