LOS ANGELES — Yoshinobu Yamamoto continues to prove his worth in his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers signed the 26-year-old Japanese star pitcher to help the team get back to the World Series. He made his World Series debut Saturday and produced a dominant outing in the Dodgers’ 4-2 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 2.
“He was made for those moments,” Teoscar Hernández said. “We trust in him. Earlier today, I told him it was going to be a good night for him, and he did. He gave us a chance to score some runs. He put some zeros on the board, and we won the game.”
Yamamoto allowed just one hit while striking out four and walking two in 6⅓ innings pitched. He retired 11 consecutive batters after giving up a home run to Juan Soto in the top of the third inning.
“I thought the first few innings we took a lot of good at-bats against him, made him work some longer at-bats,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Once he got a little bit of that lead, he kind of got into a rhythm, really did a good job of attacking at strike one. It was hard to be patient with him when he was on the attack and getting ahead.”
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Why didn’t Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitch longer in Game 2?
After facing Giancarlo Stanton, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts walked toward the mound to take the ball from Yamamoto, who received a standing ovation from most of the 52,725 fans in attendance. Yamamoto threw 54 strikes on 86 pitches.
“I was trying to focus on facing one hitter at a time,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “I was able to throw the strike when I wanted.”
Saturday marked one of Yamamoto’s longer MLB outings. He hadn’t pitched into the seventh inning since a regular season game against the Yankees on the road in June. He allowed just two hits during that outing.
“There wasn’t much stress in the game,” Roberts said of his mindset for Yamamoto’s usage on Saturday. “He hasn’t been in the seventh inning since that Yankee game. I think he’s thrown up to 76 pitches, so I felt we had a good building block foundation.”
Roberts added that he wanted Yamamoto to pitch against Stanton to extend his usage to just one more batter before removing him from the game.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto contract
Yamamoto signed a 12-year deal worth $325 million in December 2023 as a free agent.
When will Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitch next for Dodgers?
Yamamoto could be available to pitch in either Games 6 or 7 of the World Series, if necessary.
Roberts told reporters in September that the plan was to keep Yamamoto on five days rest between starts and they weren’t going to try and force him to pitch on shorter rest just because it was the postseason.