Anthony Volpe flies out and the Dodgers are six outs from taking a 2-0 lead in the World Series.

Anthony Rizzo, the active career leader in HBP, gets on base after Banda grazes his hand with a fastball. The Yankees get their first baserunner since Soto's homer in the third, but with two outs in the seventh.

The Dodgers gave Yamamoto the biggest contract in the history of pitching to keep him away from the Yankees and Mets last offseason. With the start he delivered tonight, that's looking like a bargain.

Yamamoto gets Stanton to fly out, and here comes Dave Roberts. Yamamoto retired his last 11 batters faced and receives a standing ovation and "Yoshi" chants from Dodger Stadium as he heads to the dugout. In comes Anthony Banda.

Yamamoto's final line: 6 1/3 inning, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 86 pitches.

Banda is left-handed, so we'll see if Yamamoto gets the full inning. The left-handed Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Rizzo are due up after Stanton, so this might be a one-batter assignment for Yamamoto.

Will Smith grounds out and we're headed to the seventh. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is staying in with a big matchup against Giancarlo Stanton looming.

Again, you can't rule out the Yankees, but this is very bad.

Tim Hill retires Kiké Hernández and Max Muncy, and that will do it for him after a perfect 1 1/3 innings. Clay Holmes enters to face Will Smith with two outs.

This is looking bad for the Yankees, but here's the thing: They have crushed a lot of spirits in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings this postseason. You cannot count them out with them down only three runs.

Yamamoto has allowed only one hit — the Juan Soto home run — and three baserunners total while striking out four in six innings. Much was made entering this game about how his best game of the regular season was against the Yankees, and, well, he's replicating that.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto goes 1-2-3 against the top of the Yankees lineup in eight pitches, with another strikeout of Aaron Judge. That was impressive, and the Dodgers will probably keep riding him.

Hill strikes Tommy Edman out looking to keep the fifth inning scoreless. And Yoshinobu Yamamoto stays in to face the top of the Yankees order in the top of the sixth.

No one is warming in the Dodgers bullpen.

Freeman hits a soft fly to right field, and swung and missed on a first-pitch inside fastball (the same pitch Nestor Cortes threw him).

Yankees fans, discuss.

Teoscar Hernández stays hot with a single off Jake Cousins, and now Aaron Boone is bringing Tim Hill in to face Freddie Freeman. As many Yankees fans wish he'd done last night.

However, the bigger concern for the Yankees might be that the sidearmer will have to face lefty-crusher Tommy Edman unless Freeman hits into a double play.

Another scoreless inning for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is now at 72 pitches through five. The top of the lineup is due up next inning, though, so we'll see how cautious the Dodgers want to play with the third time through the order.

Cousins gets Ohtani to ground out to end the inning. It's still 4-1 Dodgers through four.

Stats are still coming in on Freddie Freeman.

Will Smith welcomes Jake Cousins with a double to the center-field wall. Big hit there because it means Shohei Ohtani will probably be facing the righty Cousins, though Cousins is good on both sides of the plate.

Rodón's final line: 3 1/3 innings, 6 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 3 HR, 63 pitches. Just a bad matchup for a solid pitcher.

Rodón strikes out Muncy, and that will do it for him. Jake Cousins, who took the loss last night after allowing a hit and a walk in three batters, is taking over.

The Yankees bullpen has 5 2/3 innings to cover, which probably isn't what Aaron Boone was envisioning tonight.

The Yankees are indeed keeping Rodón in for the fourth inning. Maybe not a surprise with the back half of the lineup due up, but you could also see them pulling him after the left-handed Max Muncy.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws a scoreless fourth inning, and just as significantly, needs only 10 pitches to do it. He has thrown 62, and the Dodgers would certainly like it if he can go longer than his usual, say, five innings.

Even when Carlos Rodón's stuff looks sharp and is in the zone, he is especially prone to fly balls — a dangerous weakness against a team such as the Dodgers that has so many hitters capable of hitting the ball airborne with authority.

Rodón's hardest pitch of the night — a 98 mph, 1-0 heater to Teoscar Hernandez — was torched to center for a homer before Freddie Freeman followed by winning a six-pitch battle that ended with another homer to put L.A. up 4-1.

Aaron Boone will have some tough decisions to make soon regarding which bullpen arms he chooses to deploy if he hopes to keep this game close.

Carlos Rodón gets out of the inning, and we'll see if they send him back out there to face the bottom of the Dodgers lineup before reaching the third time through the order. He's at 59 pitches through three.

Big problem for him here: He usually relies on his changeup against right-handed batters such as Edman and Hernández, but the Dodgers had the best wOBA in baseball against offspeed pitches during the regular season.

And now a double from Tommy Edman. The Dodgers have Carlos Rodón on the ropes.

Freddie Freeman entered the World Series without an extra-base hit this postseason. He now has two homers and a triple in a game and a half after going back-to-back with Hernández. Absolutely huge for the Dodgers.

Teoscar Hernández responds. Rodón threw a 98 mph fastball high, and the 2024 Home Run Derby champ smashed it to right. We're seeing a little more power than in Game 1.

"We're going to run him as far as we can take him" — Dave Roberts on Yoshinobu Yamamoto, before admitting the game could come down to the bullpens.

Juan Soto vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was one of the more intriguing matchups heading into Game 2, considering Soto was not in the lineup when Yamamoto was excellent against the Yankees in the Bronx back in June.

Yamamoto got Soto to ground out in the first inning, but it took 7 pitches to do so, so Soto got early looks at Yamamoto's fastball, curveball and splitter. Another lengthy battle ensued in the 3rd inning, and this time, Soto took the 6th pitch from Yamamoto — a 95 mph heater down and in — way out to right field to tie the game.

Breaking news: This Soto fella is pretty good at hitting.

That was a straight-up missed target for Yamamoto against Soto. Yamamoto's command hasn't been great today, but his stuff was good enough to keep him out of trouble, until ...

Aaron Judge flies out to end the inning, and we're tied heading into the bottom of the third. Yamamoto's at 52 pitches.

Juan Soto. After taking a ball with two strikes and fouling another off, he blasts an inside-corner fastball into the right-field stands.

Carlos Rodón gets out of the inning without further damage, with a really nice play on a swinging bunt from Will Smith to end the inning. The Yankees lineup now has a little work to do.

What a trade-deadline acquisition Tommy Edman has turned out to be for the Dodgers.

Remember he came to L.A. along with Michael Kopech in the three-way swap with the White Sox and Cardinals.

Tommy Edman against lefties: a very good hitter. The NLCS MVP cranks a homer to left field, and the Dodgers are up early in Game 2.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws a scoreless second inning and now sits at 35 pitches. He has run deep into counts and allowed a couple of walks but no decent contact by the Yankees yet. He has thrown only two splitters, too.

Freddie Freeman got a nice ovation returning to the plate before popping out to end the inning.

And that's a scoreless first inning for Carlos Rodón with three outs in the air. Mookie Betts got the first hit of the game with an opposite-field line drive, but that was it. 13 pitches for Rodón.

The first three Yankees hitters worked a full count against Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but he puts down the heart of the lineup, including a strikeout of Aaron Judge, to post a scoreless first inning. He's at 21 pitches through four batters, but the Dodgers usually care more about run prevention than length.

The entirety of World Series Game 1 featured just two non-intentional walks: a Juan Soto BB in the 1st inning and Gavin Lux's crucial free pass in the bottom of the 10th that allowed the top of the Dodgers order the chance to walk things off. The first batter of Game 2, Gleyber Torres, just walked to start the evening. That's a key for the Yanks, who walked 70 more times this year than any other club.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto fires a 98 mph fastball to Gleyber Torres, and we're off in Game 2 of the 2024 World Series after a four-minute Ice Cube delay.

Can the Dodgers take a 2-0 lead as the series heads to New York, or will the Yankees even it up and steal home-field advantage? Let's find out.