LOS ANGELES – For the second night in a row, the World Series came down to a final at-bat with the bases loaded for the trailing team. There were no late-inning heroics this time.

Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia got New York Yankees pinch hitter Jose Trevino to fly into center field to secure a 4-2 victory on Saturday night, the second in a row for the Dodgers, who led 2-0 in the best -or- seven series with Game 3 on Monday in New York.

Like Yankees reliever Nestor Cortes, who gave up a walk-off grand slam to Freddie Freeman in Game 1, Vesia was coming off an injury that forced him to miss the NLCS. But he shook off the rust with an inning of work on Friday and was then called upon to relieve judge Blake Treinen, who loaded the bases on two singles and a hit-by-pitch.

Like Freeman, Trevino chased the first ball, narrowly missing a ball that landed 100 yards away and into the glove of midfielder Tommy Edman.

The 52,725 in attendance at Dodger Stadium breathed a collective sigh of relief, as did the man on the mound.

“It all happened quite quickly,” Vesia said afterwards. “With the bases loaded and two outs for me, it’s an advantage for the batter to start the batter 1-0, so I wanted to attack my strengths and try to execute a pitch.”

The four-seam infield fastball lived up to expectations and capped a night of great pitching for the usually offensively driven Dodgers, who may have lost star designated hitter Shohei Ohtani to a shoulder injury.

Coming into the game, the Dodgers had scored at least six runs in six of their past seven postseason games, and it appeared they were on track to make it seven of eight after Edman, Teoscar Hernandez and Freeman homered in the second and third. innings, respectively. But the Dodgers wouldn’t score again. That wasn’t necessary, thanks to starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was spectacular and threw his best game since beating the Yankees in early June.

“That was an incredible start for Yamamoto,” Treinen said. “It will definitely be one of the best starts in this postseason there.”

Yamamoto pitched 6⅓ innings and gave up just one hit – a solo home run to Juan Soto – while walking two and striking out four, including Aaron Judge twice. His five-pitch mix was as good as it has been in a while as the right-hander worked his way back from an arm injury in August and September. Some of his outings, even in the postseason, looked more like spring appearances. He pitched three innings in Game 1 of the NLDS, then five in Game 5 of that series, then back to 4⅓ innings in Game 4 of the NLCS. He hadn’t thrown more than 73 pitches since late September. That changed in Game 2 of the World Series when he threw 86 stress-free throws with plenty of movement.

“By the time I came off the IL, I was already pretty much – pretty close to where I was before,” Yamamoto said through a team interpreter. “After that, when I started throwing in a game, I think I got better.”

The Yankees were off balance all night. Yamamoto threw 42 fastballs, 21 curves, 11 splitters, eight sliders and four cutters. Fifty-four of his 86 went for strikes.

“He’s really good,” Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “He’s electric. His split seems to go three different ways. He throws strikes. He keeps his composure. I understand why he’s had so much success in Japan this year and so much success here.”

Manager Aaron Boone added: “It was hard to be patient with him when he was on the attack and getting ahead.”

Yamamoto was a big offseason addition for the Dodgers, signing a 12-year contract worth $325 million, but the Rookie of the Year favorite to start the season took some time to find his feet. His ERA would eventually drop below 3.00 in June, just after he shut out the Yankees over seven innings and just before he would go on the injured list due to a rotator cuff problem. When he returned in September, the Dodgers took it easy. They benefit from it now.

“There wasn’t a lot of stress in the game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Yeah, he hasn’t been in the seventh inning since that Yankee game (in June). I felt like we had a good building block foundation.”

Yamamoto came off the mound to a standing ovation in the seventh and is now set to throw Game 6 on an extra day of rest if necessary. The appearance came amid a cloud of uncertainty for the Dodgers when it comes to their best player. Ohtani will undergo an MRI on Sunday to determine the severity of his shoulder injury, though the Dodgers are confident they can win even if he misses time.

“Oh yes, a thousand percent,” Teoscar Hernandez said. “We struggled with a lot of injuries throughout the year. First it was the starting pitcher and then Mookie and then Freddie. And hopefully Ohtani isn’t the case.”

Between Jack Flaherty’s performance in Game 1 and Yamamoto’s in Game 2, Hernandez may be right about his team’s chances if Ohtani can’t play. They may lose some offense, but suddenly the Dodgers have more starting pitching than anyone realized. For most of the postseason, their storyline on the mound revolved around their bullpen. That could change at the most important moment of the playoffs.

“The last two nights everyone was saying we might not have the starting weapons to make a run in the World Series, but what Jack did yesterday and Yamamoto in his first World Series game, that’s really impressive,” Treinen said.