Yoshinobu Yamamoto wasn’t particularly sharp early and the Los Angeles Dodgers fell short in completing a four-game sweep of the San Diego Padres with a 5-3 loss.
Yamamoto gave up plenty of hard contact and deep fly balls in the first inning but managed to retire the side in order. However, that caught up to him in the second when Xander Bogaerts hit a solo home run.
Yamamoto then retired 11 batters in a row before giving up a leadoff single to Bogaerts in the fifth inning. Jake Cronenworth’s base hit put runners on the corners, and Jose Iglesias’ sacrifice fly extended the Padres’ lead to 2-0.
Back-to-back doubles by Bogaerts and Cronenworth to open the seventh inning brought in an insurance run for Sani Diego. Yamamoto was lifted after 6.1 innings pitched on a night that he once again was let down by a lack of run support.
Including Thursday’s loss, the Dodgers have scored zero or one run while Yamamoto has still been in the game for 10 of his 15 starts this season. That stretch has included all four of Yamamoto’s starts in June.
Despite that, Yamamoto has pitched into the seventh inning in four of his last six starts. The Dodgers are just 2-4 in those games, with Yamamoto personally being tabbed for the loss in four of them.
The Dodgers struggled against Padres starter Ryan Bergert and failed to collect their first hit of the game until Tommy Edman’s one-out single in the third inning. Shohei Ohtani’s base hit put runners at first and third, but Mookie Betts grounded out to end the inning.
The Dodgers had another opportunity in the bottom of the fifth behind an Edman walk and Hyeseong Kim single. That prompted the Padres to make a pitching change, and Adrian Morejon retired Ohtani to put out the threat.
Frustration remained for the Dodgers when a leadoff single and error put two runners on with nobody out in the seventh inning before Jeremiah Estrada worked out of trouble.
The Padres scored two runs in the eighth inning off Jack Little, who was making his MLB debut. Little then hit Fernando Tatis Jr. in the hand in the ninth and that led to both benches clearing.
Managers Dave Roberts and Mike Shildt were at the center of the fracas, with the Dodgers’ skipper appearing to repeat, “We’ll talk later,” to his Padres’ counterpart.
The Padres seemingly retaliated by hitting Ohtani, and it resulted in Robert Suarez getting ejected. The Dodgers went on to load the bases before their rally ended.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto robbed of immaculate inning
After giving up the home run in the second inning, Yamamoto bounced right back to strike out the side in the third. He nearly did so on nine pitches, which would have achieved an MLB rarity of an immaculate inning.
Dustin May was the last Dodgers pitcher to complete an immaculate inning, doing so in 2022.
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