The Los Angeles Dodgers overcame two deficits to defeat the San Diego Padres, 7-5, in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto struggled in his MLB postseason debut, allowing five runs on five hits over just three innings of work. He recorded only one strikeout and walked two batters.
The right-hander ran into some early trouble as an RBI groundout by Jurickson Profar and two-run homer from Manny Machado gave the Padres a 3-0 lead in the top of the first.
Yamamoto bounced back with a scoreless second inning but gave up two more runs in the third on Xander Bogaerts’ RBI double that gave the Padres a 5-3 lead. Teoscar Hernández could have potentially limited it to just one run if not for his sliding attempt down the left-field line coming up empty.
Yamamoto got through the frame but did not return for the fourth inning. “Both,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts answered when asked if he removed Yamamoto due to tiredness or because the team could not afford to get further behind.
“I thought that there were some misses. I just felt that there was stress. I just thought that they were seeing him well. There’s some things that I think we’re going to dig into because I think at second base they had some things with his glove and giving away some pitches. We’re going to clean that up. That’s part of baseball.
“So it’s on us to kind of clean that up and not give away what pitch he’s going to throw. We’ll clean that up internally. But I think for me it’s just the guys, they had a lot of good swings against him in three innings.”
There were concerns that Yamamoto may have tipped his pitches in his 2024 Spring Training debut but the Dodgers coaching staff helped him make the necessary corrections.
Aside from that, Yamamoto did not deal with this issue during the regular season. He went 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA, 2.61 FIP and 1.11 WHIP in 18 starts.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto moving on to next postseason start with Dodgers
Yamamoto has already moved on from his start against the Padres and looking forward to taking the mound again. “I’m going to review what went wrong and then I’m going to study the lineup again. I’m going to analyze it and then study and get myself ready for the next one,” he said through translator Yoshihiro Sonoda.
Yamamoto struggled in his first regular-season start with the Dodgers before bouncing back with a strong outing his next time out on the mound.
He is hoping for a similar outcome in the postseason. “Like I said, I really appreciate the support because my teammates got my spot. And until the next outing I’m going to review what went wrong and what was good, and then I’m going to make it workable into the next outing,” Yamamoto said.
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