It's time to pull out receipts on Dodgers' signing Yoshinobu Yamamoto after NLCS feat

In NLCS Game 1, Dave Roberts opted to pull starter Blake Snell after eight innings and took some heat for it. Thankfully, he didn't invite the same scrutiny in Game 2, when he let Yoshinobu Yamamoto ride it out.

Yamamoto had given up just one run all night — a first-pitch leadoff homer to Jackson Chourio to give the Brewers an instantaneous lead — but he went on to blank Milwaukee through the rest of the game as the Dodgers put up five runs in support of their starter. When the eighth inning wrapped, Yamamoto had thrown 97 pitches.

With the comfortable lead and Yamamoto having gotten up to 113 pitches in 6 2/3 innings against the Reds in the Wild Card round, he came out to finish what he started, and he took the Brewers down in order.

Yamamoto has been just about the only solid, constant thing about the Dodgers' pitching staff this season, but his complete game — the first complete postseason game for a Dodgers pitcher since José Lima in 2004, and the first in MLB since Justin Verlander in 2017 — was the crowning jewel of his year.

It had Dodgers fans gleefully pulling out the receipts on anyone who doubted Yamamoto when the Dodgers signed him on the most lucrative contract for a starting pitcher in 2023.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the last laugh over doubters after complete game in Dodgers-Brewers NLCS Game 2

Former player Josh Reddick's tweet and known Twitter provocateur (and Mets fan) Mark Gooden's "BREAKING: The Los Angeles Dodgers wasted $325 million on Yoshinobu Yamamoto" have been doing the rounds on social media since Yamamoto's feat.

People like Reddick and Gooden only got bolder after Yamamoto was roughed up in his four-inning start against the Phillies in NLDS Game 3, especially because of the 455-foot bomb that Kyle Schwarber almost sent clean out of Dodger Stadium. There was no better way to shut them up than to do exactly what he did on Tuesday night.

He only struck out seven batters, but he got out of five innings without the ball leaving the infield and only allowed two hits, both singles, outside of the Chourio homer.

This is exactly what the Dodgers paid $325 million for. The Dodgers are just two wins away from clinching their second World Series berth in as many years, and Yamamoto may find himself hoisting the NLCS MVP trophy when this one is in the books.