The 27-year-old Japanese right-hander, despite allowing a home run on his first pitch, posted the Dodgers’ first complete game in the playoffs since 2004, retiring the final 14 Brewers batters he faced.
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Yamamoto struck out six and allowed just one run, three hits and one walk in the first complete MLB playoff game by a Japanese-born pitcher and the first by anyone since Justin Verlander in 2017.
Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernández homered for the Dodgers, Muncy hit his 14th to set the Dodgers’ all-time home run record in the playoffs.
“It means a lot to me, but the most important thing is having so many opportunities to perform in the postseason,” Muncy said.
The Dodgers took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series, which resumes in Los Angeles on Thursday.
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The National League champion will play the American League champion, either the Seattle Mariners or the Toronto Blue Jays, in the World Series, which begins October 24.
The Mariners lead that series 2-0 into Game 3 on Wednesday in Seattle.
The Dodgers are trying to become the first team to repeat as World Series champions since the New York Yankees won three in a row from 1998 to 2000, while the Brewers reached their only World Series in 1982, losing to St. Louis.
“To come out of here with two runs on the road is huge and our pitching is incredible,” Muncy said.
“For Yoshi to give up the leadoff home run, not let it get to him at all, was incredible.”
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The Brewers tagged Yamamoto for five runs in two-thirds of an inning in a July regular-season game, the shortest start of his MLB career, and made him pay early again.
Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio crashed Yamamoto’s first offering over the right field wall for the Brewers’ only run.
Hernández, a Dominican outfielder who will turn 34 on Wednesday, responded with a solo home run in the second inning, launching a Peralta curveball over the left-field wall.
The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead later in the second when Enrique Hernandez singled and scored on Andy Pages’ double to right field.
Muncy hit a solo home run off right-hander Freddy Peralta with two outs in the sixth, increasing Los Angeles’ lead to 3-1 and sending the Brewers starter to the showers.
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The Dodgers added another insurance run in the seventh inning when Enrique Hernandez doubled, took third base on Pages’ sacrifice bunt and scored on Shohei Ohtani’s single to right field.
The visitors struck again in the eighth for a 5-1 lead when Will Smith singled, took second when Muncy walked, reached third on Teoscar Hernandez’s groundout and scored on Tommy Edman’s single.
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