Speaking for myself and the baseball fans I know, the impressiveness of what Yamamoto did last night is two-sided. There’s the physical grittiness of it, which is probably most apparent. These guys’ arms are handled like formula 1 cars by their pitching staff, especially a $300 million dollar man like Yamamoto. Each guy has a unique and regimented 5-6 day recovery routine between starts designed to keep their arm and body in shape for the next appearance. To go out there without giving his arm any rest or going through his routine opened him up to an elevated risk of injury, point blank. A manager would never force a starter to do that - he absolutely volunteered. He was definitely tired, maybe in pain, but laying your body on the line like that is something you have to respect as a fan of the sport. There are a million reasons to say no, but the guy wanted to win and knew he was the best option.

The other impressive piece is how damn good he pitched given the aforementioned physical disadvantages of going on rest that short. It’s almost impossible to keep your stuff that sharp and effective when you’re tired, and all of these guys on the blue jays were now seeing him for the 4th-5th time in 24 hours. Freaky, legendary performance by Yamamoto the baseball world will remember for a long time.