The Los Angeles Dodgers suffered a 7-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night, but of greater concern is Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s health moving forward.
Yamamoto was removed early due to right triceps soreness that was partly behind the Dodgers’ decision to push his scheduled start back by two days. Yamamoto first experienced the trouble in the days after throwing a season-high 106 pitches against the New York Yankees.
Yamamoto said he felt the issue again while warming up Saturday and alerted Dodgers pitching coaches but felt it wasn’t serious at that point.
“We wouldn’t pitch him if we felt he’d put himself in harms way,” manager Dave Roberts said. “If we knew he was going to throw two innings, he wouldn’t have started.”
The right-hander threw 28 pitches over two scoreless innings, though only 14 were for strike. Yamamoto did not show any obvious signs of an injury but his final pitch was 92.9 mph, the slowest of the night.
Furthermore, Yamamoto’s fastball velocity was down an average of 1.4 mph. He topped out at 95.9 mph in the start, which was a slight increase from his season average of 95.5 mph.
Is Yoshinobu Yamamoto going on injured list?
Yamamoto is expected to meet with doctors on Sunday to evaluate his status but Roberts already deemed it a “high possibility” he is placed on the 15-day injured list.
Doing so would help the Dodgers bring up a needed fresh relief pitcher from Triple-A Oklahoma City in the meantime, and Yamamoto’s spot in the starting rotation will then be taken by Bobby Miller when he is activated on Wednesday.
Prior to Yamamoto’s injury, Roberts indicated the Dodgers were going to utilize a six-man starting rotation for their next turn through.
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