Yamamoto outduels Gausman as Dodgers beat Blue Jays in Game 2 to even World Series

Two swings of the bat.

That’s all it took to turn what was shaping up to be a classic pitchers’ duel into a two-run Los Angeles Dodgers lead that might as well have been 10.

Will Smith and Max Muncy both hit solo home runs in the seventh inning against Toronto Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman, flipping a 1-1 tie into a two-run Los Angeles lead. The Dodgers added two more runs for a 5-1 win to even the World Series at one game apiece on Saturday at Rogers Centre.

Remarkably, Los Angeles starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw his second straight post-season complete game to earn the win.

“That was a great performance by him,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

“It’s hard to do. I get why [Dodgers manager Dave Roberts] let him go. He was that good. The baseball fan, they appreciate that. You have to appreciate a complete game. You never know when someone’s gonna have it.”

It marked the first time since Curt Schilling in 2001 that a pitcher accomplished the feat of back-to-back complete games in the post-season, and the first time since 2015 that a pitcher tossed a complete game in the World Series.

Yamamoto’s final line: nine innings, four hits, one earned run, and eight strikeouts. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman matched Yamamoto through six innings, with both allowing just one run. At one point, they combined to retire 27 straight batters — the equivalent of a perfect game.

But Gausman blinked, Yamamoto never did, and that was the difference.

“Felt good, got in a good rhythm. I thought [catcher Alejandro Kirk] called a great game. We executed pitches up in the zone, down in the zone when we needed to. Tried to keep them off balance,” Gausman said.

“Two pitches to two really good hitters,