by Megan Garcia
Run support has been scarce for Yoshinobu Yamamoto when he’s pitched this season.
The Dodgers were only averaging 3.9 runs in each of his starts entering Tuesday, compared to the 6.0 runs they averaged when someone else was on the mound.
Yamamoto sat down the White Sox in order in the seventh, and he did it with the Dodgers commanding a five-run lead. It was enough support to secure his eighth win of the season.
The Dodgers beat the White Sox 6–1 in the series opener at Dodger Stadium.
The big production stemmed from the second half of the order, with Andy Pages and Michael Conforto leading with two runs batted in each.
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“We’re getting a lot of contributions from the guys in the middle to the bottom of the order, which is huge. We’re getting timely hits,” said manager Dave Roberts.
Behind eight strikeouts in seven innings, Yamamoto continued where he left off in his rain-shortened, five-inning start in Colorado on June 25. He commanded the strike zone and landed 65 strikes in his 98 pitches against the White Sox.
“I think he recalibrated the strike throwing. The split was really good today. The fastball, obviously, the command was really good,” Roberts said. “Got some early outs, a lot of strikeouts. It was really good tonight.”
His splitter recorded six whiffs on Tuesday, along with five strikeouts. Opposing teams are hitting .138 against it.
Yamamoto has given up one earned run in his last 12 innings pitched.
“I’ve been executing my pitches very efficiently, and I think somehow I’ve figured out how to deal with all of it.” Yamamoto said of his last two starts.
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The Dodgers scored all of their runs with two outs against White Sox starter Shane Smith. They jumped to second in Major League Baseball with a .260 batting average with two outs after the series-opening win.
The Dodgers’ 184 runs with two outs lead MLB, as well.
“It just makes it tough on the pitcher and the defense. A lot of what we’ve been doing well over the past couple of weeks, we just did that again today,” Conforto said.
Teoscar Hernández, Pages and Conforto hit three consecutive singles in the first to give the Dodgers a 4–0 lead.
Pages ranks fourth in Major League Baseball with a .383 batting average with runners in scoring position.
Shohei Ohtani delivered the final punch for his fellow countryman in his latest win. His 30th homer in the fourth leads the National League.
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Ohtani is the third player in MLB to cross the 30-homer mark this season.
Dodgers build a lead for Yamamoto, and he keeps it was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.