Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays may not have been impressed with Shohei Ohtani’s performance on the mound, but he was blown away by another hurler for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Guerrero highlighted Yoshinobu Yamamoto has being hard to get a hit off of.
“He was nasty. He was the MVP,” Guerrero told Yancen Pujols in an exclusive Spanish-language interview. “He takes the bat out of your hands. That guy keeps the ball down at your knees and strikes everybody out.”
Yamamoto, who was indeed the World Series MVP, drew amazement and praise from around the baseball world after the championship, with many noting that he performed at a high level even without rest between outings.
It was a marked difference from 2024, when he struggled after transitioning to a five-day rest period between starts.
In 2025, however, he recorded three wins in the Fall Classic, including wins in Games 6 and 7, played on back-to-back days.
Over the series, he recorded an incredible 1.02 ERA in 17.2 innings of work, with two earned runs scored against him.
He also struck out 15 batters and allowed only 10 hits.
Vlad Jr. Not as Impressed With Ohtani’s Pitching
In contrast to Yamamoto, Guerrero believes Ohtani “wasn’t that tough to hit.“
Ohtani gave up a pivotal home run to Guerrero in the World Series, but he also struck the Jays slugger out twice.
Overall, though, Ohtani did not pitch at an elite level in the World Series. In 8.1 innings of work, he gave up 11 hits and 7 earned runs, resulting in an ERA of 7.56.
He also was the losing pitcher for Game 4 at Dodger Stadium, the matchup in which Guerrero blasted that homer.
While Guerrero is downplaying Ohtani’s pitching, Mmanager Dave Roberts has taken the other tack, noting that Ohtani “expects to be in the Cy Young conversation.”
