Yoshinobu Yamamoto proved Brian Cashman very wrong with dominant Game 2 start

Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched the game of his life in Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday night, dominating the New York Yankees over 6.1 innings of one-hit ball to help the Los Angeles Dodgers take a commanding 2-0 lead back to the Bronx. Yamamoto allowed a solo homer to Juan Soto in the top of the third, but other than that he was nearly flawless, looking every bit the ace that was promised when he came over from Japan last offseason.

This sort of start in this sort of moment is exactly what the Dodgers envisioned when they made the decision to hand Yamamoto a massive 12-year, $325 million contract back in December. It's also exactly what his opponents should've been thinking about when they declined to do the same.

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Yankees should regret not going the extra mile to sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto

From the moment he was posted to the Majors, everyone knew that Yamamoto was in for a potentially historic bidding war. He'd won the pitching triple crown in Japan three years running, he boasted one of the deepest pitching arsenals of anyone in the world and, at age 25, he was just entering his prime. Pitchers like him simply don't hit the market very often, and all the usual suspects were in the running — including the Dodgers and Yankees, each of whom had holes in their rotation and money to spend.

Los Angeles was willing to go to $325 million. According to reporting at the time, however, New York was not: Most sources pegged Hal Steinbrenner's best and final offer at $300 million, a number conspicuously below what the team had given to incumbent ace Gerrit Cole.

Unsurprisingly, Yamamoto opted for the former, and the rest is history. The Yankees have been searching for reliable answers behind Cole all year long, in large part thanks to another big free-agent contract, Carlos Rodon, never delivering on his Cy Young promise. Rodon got knocked around in the Game 2 loss on Saturday, and now New York will turn to two relatively unknown young righties (Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil) to try and keep their season alive back at Yankee Stadium.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, got exactly what they paid for, an ace performance in an ace spot. Los Angeles is winning this series for a lot of reasons, among them the fact that their roster is just a little bit deeper than New York's. The Yankees thought that they'd done enough to build a championship roster, that they could cut corners rather than continue to add talent. They were proven wrong at the worst possible time.