TORONTO — The demon in $15,000 pants did it again.
Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, he of the all-time historic pitching performance last fall, has a particular passion for fashion. Vogue Magazine named the Japanese hurler one of the 55 best dressed people of 2025. He has a deep, pricy collection of designer jewelry, designer watches and designer bags, including a custom-made Hermés Birkin in Dodgers colors that’s worth around $40,000.
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Such are the spoils of a 12-year, $325 million contract.
It’s Yamamoto’s right to clothe himself in designer threads, and clearly, he loves doing it. He also loves carving through opposing lineups and frustrating the kind people of Toronto.
On Tuesday, the two-time World Series winner returned to Rogers Centre, the scene of his Fall Classic heroics, wearing a pair of black Chrome Hearts bottoms valuable enough to trade in for a 2016 Honda Accord. He then proceeded to smother the Blue Jays’ lineup into submission for the fourth time in 164 days. And for the second consecutive evening, Yamamoto’s Dodgers turned this World Series rematch into something of a tensionless exhibition, defeating a battered and beleaguered Jays team 4-1.
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Across the first five innings, Yamamoto looked as untouchable as he did last autumn. He racked up six strikeouts without walking a batter. He kept hitters off-balance with a Mariana-deep six-pitch mix. The only blemish on his ledger was a Jesús Sánchez fly that Kyle Tucker misplayed into a double. Los Angeles’ newest baseball villain got an awful read on the play, lackadaisically drifting backward until the ball crested over his outstretched glove. Besides that, Yamamoto was perfect through 15 outs.
“He had command of everything tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “I thought the split, the fastball, using the curveball when he needed to — he got those guys in a swing-mode kind of situation, where they didn’t want to get into counts.”
Things got hairy in the sixth before unraveling a little in the seventh. Yamamoto tired and was evidently less effective when working from the stretch with runners on base. He allowed a double and a single to begin the seventh, and so out came skipper Dave Roberts to pull Yamamoto with no outs and the go-ahead run at the dish.
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That elicited some buzz from the 40,000-plus Canadians celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Blue Jays’ very first home game. A few taunting chants of “YA-MA-MO-TO” reverberated under the dome. Genuine excitement — a concept so fleeting so far for the 2026 Jays.
But unfortunately for those hopeless hopefuls, Los Angeles reliever Alex Vesia was able to Houdini himself out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam, and the Dodgers, once again, emerged victorious.
Still, it’s delightfully ironic that the defending champs could have lost this game because Roberts let Yamamoto pitch too much.
But even when things went a smidge sideways, Yamamoto did not look remotely bothered by the setting or the narrative or the shadows of his magical postseason. In fact, after his outing, Yamamoto claimed to not have felt any nostalgic pull toward his Fall Classic accomplishments while dissecting the Jays on Tuesday.
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“Not really,” he shared through his interpreter, Yoshihiro Sonoda, when asked whether he experienced any World Series flashbacks upon taking the Rogers Centre mound. “Today was a different game, and I was focusing on today’s game.”
Whether that statement was truth or bluster, Yamamoto has never been one to let himself be consumed by the moment. His latest strong outing — 6 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 Ks — helped secure the Dodgers the best record in baseball through two weeks of play. That might turn out to be a distinction they hold onto for a while.
Wherever this season leads, Yamamoto will play a massive role in L.A.’s journey. He is squarely one of the game’s best pitchers, inarguably among an upper crust that includes Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes, Boston’s Garrett Crochet and Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez. A first Cy Young Award is certainly in Yamamoto’s sights and within his reach. That will remain a storyline all season.
A unique, persnickety, eclectic between-start routine might help Yamamoto get there. His outfield javelin throws, yoga and breathing routines became well-known last October, as did his personal movement guru, Yada Sensei.
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But last weekend in the underbelly of Nationals Park, the 27-year-old hurler hammered away behind the scenes. He stood barefoot on the cold, cement floor with a miniature inflatable soccer ball, about the size of a large grapefruit, in each hand. Again and again, Yamamoto contorted his small frame around itself to fire the sphere against a brick wall with his $325 million right arm. The sound of this workout was deafening.
It is just one of the many avant-garde exercises Yamamoto employs to keep his undersized frame in peak condition. It’s why he was able to do what he did against the Jays in November. And it’s part of what allows Yamamoto, listed at a questionably generous 5-foot-10, to be one of the best in the world.
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“As far as the art of pitching, I think in the last 10 years that we’ve lost it,” Roberts told Yahoo Sports after the game. “But he hasn’t. He certainly looks at it as an art.”
At least this type of art is a little bit more accessible than the kind Yamamoto wears to the ballyard.
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