DENVER — It took an act of God to get Yoshinobu Yamamoto some run support.
Yamamoto and Colorado Rockies rookie Chase Dollander took an un-Coors-ian scoreless pitchers’ duel into the sixth inning on Wednesday night when a thunderstorm arrived in the Denver area, announcing its presence with lightning visible in the distance.
Heavy rain started falling during the Dodgers’ half of the sixth inning. With two on and two outs, Max Muncy lofted a high pop-up into the thick raindrops – at least one the size of a baseball. Second baseman Thairo Estrada and first baseman Michael Toglia looked up into the rain and lost sight of the ball. When it thudded to the ground near Toglia, he had so thoroughly lost track of the ball that he was startled.
Two runs scored on that play – more than Yamamoto has become accustomed to getting in support this season – and the Dodgers added a third when play resumed 87 minutes later. Muncy’s next hit went up into a dry sky, landing in the right field seats for a seventh-inning grand slam that secured an 8-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies.
Yamamoto did not return after the rain delay, so the Dodgers have now scored a total of 25 runs when he was officially in the game during his 16 starts this season. Ten times they have scored once or not at all when Yamamoto was pitching.
For awhile, Yamamoto was able to brush off the lack of support. He had an 0.90 ERA over his first seven starts and the Dodgers won five of the seven.
But Yamamoto was unable to maintain his Cy Young Award-caliber pace. Over his eight starts before Wednesday, his ERA was 4.43.
Coors Field is a great place for slumping hitters to get right. Pitchers? Not so much.
But Yamamoto rediscovered his Cy Young standard against the Rockies. He retired the first eight batters he faced, four on strikeouts, and 11 of the first 12. He walked a batter in the fifth but got a ground ball double play, facing just 16 batters in the five scoreless innings he pitched before the rain arrived.
Some pitchers will de-emphasize their breaking pitches at Coors Field because of the effects of the altitude. (Justin Wrobleski threw just three curveballs in 86 pitches on Tuesday, for example.) But Yamamoto threw 13 curveballs in his 56 pitches, using it more than his four-seam fastball (11). He got four swings-and-misses, four called strikes and a foul ball. The Rockies never put one of his curveballs in play.
A relief relay of Lou Trivino, Alex Vesia, Michael Kopech and Will Klein took over after play resumed and held the Rockies to one unearned run over the last four innings.
Their job was made easier by Muncy’s grand slam – his second in the past three games during which he has three home runs and 13 RBIs. Michael Conforto added a solo home run in the eighth inning, his second home run in two days at Coors Field.
More to come on this story.