The Dodgers made it to the World Series thanks to gem Yoshinobu Yamamoto

ORONTO – Indeed, the Blue Jays lineup could be tamed.

It just takes a masterful performance from a player like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and the World Series heads to Los Angeles at 1-1 because of that.

A night after the Blue Jays’ bullpen hit Blake Snell and opened up the game against the Dodgers, Yamamoto took matters into his own hands and never let a player touch the ball.

Yamamoto retired the last 20 batters he faced to complete a complete-game gem — his second in a row — sending the Dodgers to a 5-1 victory over the Blue Jays on Saturday night at Rogers Center.

Against a team that scored 11 runs on 14 at-bats in Game 1, Yamamoto shut down the Blue Jays, dispersing just four hits while striking out eight and walking none across 105 pitches.

By going the distance for his second straight start, Yamamoto became the first pitcher to throw consecutive complete games in the postseason since Curt Schilling threw three straight complete games in 2001.

Will Smith and Max Muncy provided the difference-making swings to ensure Yamamoto’s efforts were not wasted.

Kevin Gausman had retired 17 straight batters before Smith took him deep into a 404-foot blast to break a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning.

On a full count, Gusman threw a 94 mph fastball to the outside third and Smith cleaned it up, hitting his first home run of the postseason to calm the home crowd.

Muncy then matched Smith, sending a home run home run for the Blue Jays for a 3-1 lead.

Again, it came on a fastball from Gausman, this one a 96 mph heater on the outside edge on a 2-2 count that Muncy took the other way for an insurance run.

This way, Yamamoto got all the support he needed, and became stronger as the night went on.

After the Dodgers scratched two extra runs in the top of the eighth for extra breathing room, Yamamoto responded by hitting the side in the bottom of the frame — against the team that didn’t hit.

The 27-year-old right-hander, who turned down the Yankees and Mets to sign a 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers two years ago, lived up to every dollar of that contract on Saturday night.

He was coming off a complete game — the first of his career — against the Brewers in Game 2 of the NLCS, then matched it with the higher stakes in the Fall Classic.

The Blue Jays had tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the third on Alejandro Kirk’s sacrifice fly.

But this marked the first of 20 straight batters retired for Yamamoto, as Vladimir Guerrero’s single before Kirk Case’s sacrifice fly represented the Blue Jays’ last base runner of the night.

After the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on Smith’s RBI single, the Blue Jays’ best chance for a big run came in the bottom of the frame.

George Springer led off with a double and Nathan Lux singled to put runners on the corners with no outs.

But Yamamoto got out of trouble by retiring the next three batters in order — two on strikes — to strand both runners while throwing 23 pitches.

Yamamoto drilled Springer on the wrist/left hand with a 96 mph fastball to lead off the bottom of the third, and that led to the Blue Jays’ only run on Kirk’s sacrifice fly.