The Los Angeles Dodgers made history on Wednesday night when Yoshinobu Yamamoto took the mound against the Cleveland Guardians for his second start of the 2026 season as he capped off a streak that also involved Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani.
With the trio of pitchers taking the mound against the Cleveland Guardians, the Dodgers became the first team in MLB history to have a Japanese-born starter in three consecutive games.
“That’s fantastic. I’m very honored,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the accomplishment. “These guys are three great men. They’re all different, but this is just a special time in Major League Baseball, certainly with the Japanese players that we’re fortunate to have and around the league, and players of all nationalities.
“But yeah, it’s an honor to know that I manage these three guys.”
Japanese Dodgers pitchers make history
The Dodgers are the only current team to have three Japanese-born starting pitchers on their roster. They could have hypothetically made this particular piece of history as soon as last season, but Ohtani and Sasaki had availability issues that prevented it from happening.
Roki Sasaki
Yamamoto and Ohtani are expected to make up the backbone of the Dodgers’ rotation this season, while Sasaki has a lot of questions he needs to answer.
The 24-year-old’s start Monday was a good first step, allowing only one run on four hits with four strikeouts against two walks in four-plus innings. Sasaki revealed after the game he entered the start doubting himself but came out the other side with renewed confidence.
Shohei Ohtani
Ohtani’s season debut also was an encouraging performance as he pitched six shutout innings in the Dodgers’ 4-1 win. He allowed just one hit but did walk three batters while finishing with six strikeouts.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Yamamoto’s start in the series finale was his second outing of the season. He wasn’t overly sharp but managed to get through six innings and limit the Guardians to only two runs. However, that was enough as the Dodgers fell 4-1. They failed to score until Freddie Freeman’s homer in the ninth inning.
Yamamoto took some solace in providing the Dodgers with length but acknowledged the quality of his stuff was not up to expectations.
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