LOS ANGELES – Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one hit over 6⅓ innings, Freddie Freeman hit a home run for the second straight game and the Los Angeles Dodgers hit three early longballs to Carlos Rodon to beat the New York Yankees 4-2 on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium beat Take a 2-0 lead in the World Series.

Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernandez also went deep for the Dodgers, who watched star slugger Shohei Ohtani leave the field in the bottom of the seventh inning with an apparent left shoulder injury.

After the Yankees closed to 4-2 on Giancarlo Stanton's RBI single in the ninth off Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia relieved with the bases loaded and retired pinch-hitter Jose Trevino on a first-pitch flyout to save him.

Yamamoto gave up Juan Soto's home run in the third inning and then retired his final 11 batters.

According to ESPN Research, Yamamoto is the 13th pitcher in World Series history to allow one hit or fewer in an outing of at least six innings. He is the second Dodgers pitcher to do so, joining Rich Hill in 2018 against the Boston Red Sox, and the first pitcher to do so against the Yankees.

“I was really looking forward to this game,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter, “and I’m glad we had a great finish.”

Soto also singled in the ninth and scored on Stanton's one-out hit from the third base bag. Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a single and Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Treinen then struck out Anthony Volpe before Vesia completed a four-hitter.

Ohtani injured his left arm on a feet-first slide when he was caught stealing second base to end the seventh inning.

Game 3 is Monday night at Yankee Stadium. Of the teams that have a 2-0 lead in the World Series, 45 of 56 have won the title.

“Nobody said it was going to be easy,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It's a long series and we have to make it a long series now. We will not shy away.”

New York's Aaron Judge went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and hit .150 with six RBIs and 19 strikeouts in 40 postseason at-bats. According to ESPN Research, Judge has 13 strikeouts in the last five games, the most in five games since June 2021 and the most in five postseason games since 2017, when he was a rookie.

Soto's tying home run on an inside fastball was the only run Yamamoto gave up in two starts and 13⅓ innings against the Yankees this season. The rookie right-hander left the stadium to huge applause and gave fans a tiny token of his cap as he walked to the dugout.

“I think everything went well for me from the beginning, the first inning,” he said. “It went pretty well today.”

Yamamoto joined the Dodgers last December on a 12-year, $325 million contract, a record for pitchers, and along with Ohtani created record interest in Major League Baseball in Japan.

Yamamoto was sidelined from June 15 to September 10 with a rotator cuff strain and this was his best start since the injury.

“Yamamoto, did a great job tonight and obviously we took the lead early and held on,” Freeman said.

In his longest outing since starting in the Bronx, Yamamoto struck out four and walked two on a five-pitch array that included curveballs, splitters, sliders and cutters. He improved to 2-0 in four postseason starts.

His best game of the regular season came in June at Yankee Stadium, when he allowed three hits in seven shutout innings. Hernandez had three home runs and nine RBIs in the three-game series.

A night after Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in Series history, turning a 3-2 deficit with two outs in the 10th inning into a 6-3 victory, Edman gave the Dodgers one Solo shot in the second inning for the lead.

After Soto tied it, Mookie Betts hit a two-out single in the bottom of the third and Hernández scored on a 3-for-27 slide to right field at the pavilion.

Freeman, who before Friday had not gone deep since September 16, was greeted with huge cheers before each plate appearance. He worked out the count and hit the right center again.

Freeman, who suffered a sprained right ankle, has scored in four straight Series games, starting in Atlanta's last two games against Houston in 2021. That's one less than the record set by George Springer of the Astros.

All three Dodgers home runs came on fastballs from Rodon, whose 31 longballs allowed during the regular season were tied for second-most in the major leagues. Los Angeles hit back-to-back home runs for only the second time in the Series, after Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager hit Yankees left-hander Ron Guidry in a 2-1 win in Game 5 in 1981.

Rodon gave up four runs and six hits in 3⅓ innings.

Los Angeles took a 2-0 lead for the first time since 1988 when Kirk Gibson's walk-off home run off Oakland's Dennis Eckersley won the opener and Orel Hershiser followed with a three-hit shutout. The Yankees are 0-2 for the first time since 2001, when they rebounded from three straight wins at home and lost Games 6 and 7 in Arizona.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.