After helping the Los Angeles Dodgers repeat as World Series champions with his historic performance in the 2025 postseason, Yoshinobu Yamamoto so far has not been able to replicate that success this year.
The right-hander is coming off an inconsistent outing against the San Francisco Giants in which he allowed a career-worst three home runs. He gave up a total of five runs in 6.1 innings of work.
Despite the poor results, there was a lot to like from Yamamoto in the start. He retired the first eight batters of the game, yielded only four hits through six innings and finished with eight strikeouts against no walks.
Yamamoto believes he is close to returning to his previous form, via Dylan Hernández of the California Post.
“Almost there,” Yamamoto said in Japanese.
Another encouraging development was that Yamamoto’s average fastball velocity clocked in at a season-best 96.7 mph. He also generated seven whiffs with his splitter that has been instrumental to his success in Japan and MLB.
Unsurprisingly, Yamamoto felt that he had all his pitches working against the Giants despite missing his location on a few of them.
“My pitches,” Yamamoto said, “were a lot better.”
Yamamoto doesn’t seem to be worried about his recent struggles and is confident that he will be able to get back on track. The 27-year-old went through some rough patches in each of his first two seasons with the Dodgers and was able to work out of them by making key adjustments.
Next for Yamamoto is an opportunity to right the ship Monday night in the opener of a three-game series against the San Diego Padres.
Yamamoto has historically struggled against the Padres as he owns a 6.38 ERA in four career starts. However, he found success in his only career outing at Petco Park during the 2025 season, allowing just two runs across six innings pitched.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s 2026 stats
Through his first eight starts of this season, Yamamoto owns a 3-3 record with a 3.60 ERA, 3.92 FIP and 1.00 WHIP in 50 innings pitched.
He began the year by allowing two runs or fewer in four consecutive starts, but has posted a 5.18 ERA over his last four outings dating back to April 21. It’s similar to a stretch he endured last season before ultimately righting the ship.
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