JAPANESE PRECISION: Yamamoto, Dodgers clobber Padres, make NLCS

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched five brilliant innings and Los Angeles homered twice in a 2-0 victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday that propelled the Dodgers into the National League Championship Series (NLCS).

Two days after fending off elimination, the Dodgers completed a 3-2 victory over the Padres in the best-of-five National League division series and will host the New York Mets in Game 1 of the best-of-seven NLCS on Sunday.

Yamamoto came out on top in a historic duel with San Diego hurler Yu Darvish — the first Major League Baseball postseason match-up between two Japanese-born starting pitchers.

“I think in Japan, a lot of fans were looking forward to today’s match-up,” said Yamamoto, who added that he was determined to improve on a lackluster performance in the Dodgers’ Game 1 win.

“The last outing, I didn’t do my job well,” he said.

“I was just trying to focus on getting myself ready, preparing more meticulously... I think my mechanics were locked in today,” said the pitcher, who gave up two hits over five innings with one walk and two strikeouts, throwing 63 pitches — 39 of them strikes.

“He set the tone,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, adding that he was confident Yamamoto would rise to the occasion based on his past performances, including for Japan in the World Baseball Classic.

“He’s pitched in big ball games,” Roberts said.

“And I believed in him. I knew he was going to rise to the occasion.”

“And he was outstanding tonight. And I knew he wasn’t going to run from this spot. I’m looking forward to riding him through the World Series.”

Yamamoto allowed back-to-back singles to Kyle Higashioka and Luis Arraez in the third inning. But he induced Fernando Tatis Jr. to hit into an inning-ending double play and retired the last seven batters he faced before turning it over to the Dodgers relievers, who closed it out without allowing a hit over four innings.

Darvish pitched 6 2/3 impressive innings, but he gave up solo home runs to Enrique Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez, and that was all the Dodgers needed.

Puerto Rican slugger Hernandez crushed a solo shot to left field to put the Dodgers up 1-0 in the second inning, pouncing on a first-pitch fastball from Darvish, who had walked Max Muncy to open the inning before Will Smith hit into a double play.

It was the 14th postseason homer for 33-year-old Hernandez.

Darvish retired 14 straight batters before Teoscar Hernandez made it 2-0 in the seventh, launching a 420-foot blast into the left field seats.

When the Dominican slugger tossed his bat away to round the bases Dodger Stadium erupted.

“This is my first time in this kind of atmosphere,” Hernandez, who inked a one-year, $23.5-million deal with the Dodgers in January, told broadcaster Fox.

“But I love this. This is why I came here.”

Padres manager Mike Shildt could find little to fault in Darvish’s performance.

“I thought Yu was magnificent again,” Shildt said.

“Had them off balance. Couple of swings got him. Other than that, he was really good.”