Yamamoto left the first inning after giving up five runs on four hits and two walks on 41 pitches.
As if getting outscored by 23 runs over the weekend wasn’t bad enough for the Dodgers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto had the shortest start of his career as the Dodgers were nearly shut out against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday, losing 9-1.
Shohei Ohtani entered Monday’s contest hitting just .100 over his last 34 plate appearances. He swung hard at an 0-1 offering from Freddy Peralta, but the ball dribbled down the third base line at 54 1⁄2 miles per hour, rolling fair past the bag for an infield single. Peralta left him stranded at first after inducing an inning-ending double play of Freddie Freeman.
Sal Frelick ambushed Yamamoto early for a leadoff double before William Contreras walked to put two men on base with nobody out. Yamamoto managed to retire the next two hitters he faced, and needed just one strike to complete a scoreless first inning. Andrew Vaughn, who was making his Brewers debut, caught up to a high slider above the strike zone, and clobbered it into the left field seats for his first Brewer home run, giving Milwaukee a three run lead.
Yamamoto found himself in an identical situation after allowing a single and a walk to Isaac Collins and Brice Turang. Yamamoto got Caleb Durbin to hit a soft ground ball to Mookie Betts which looked to end the inning, but his throw to first base was low and couldn’t be dug out by Freeman, allowing a run to score on the error. Andruw Monasterio blooped in a single down the right field line to cash in Milwaukee’s fifth run of the inning, chasing Yamamoto out of the game.
Similarly to Yamamoto’s Dodger debut in Seoul last season, Yamamoto gave up five runs in the first inning. This time around, he couldn’t complete a single inning of work as his pitch count ran up to 41 before being pulled. It was the first time in Yamamoto’s big league career that he failed to record a single strikeout.
Jack Dreyer immediately extinguished the flames to put an end to a nightmare bottom of the first inning. He retired all seven men he faced in order, adding a pair of strikeouts to his day. Lou Trivino kept the trend going by setting down the three hitters in order in the bottom of the fourth inning to make it 10 straight Brewers set down.
Will Klein came on in the fifth inning after suffering the loss in Sunday’s series finale against the Houston Astros. Klein once again loaded the bases after recording two outs, this time giving up a pair of runs on a Brice Turang single to extend the Milwaukee lead to seven.
The Dodgers on offense had no responses against Peralta, as the Brewers’ lone All-Star dazzled on the mound for six shutout innings, allowing five hits and a walk while striking out seven and securing his MLB-leading 10th win of the season. They had just one base runner advance to third base against Peralta while leaving five men on base.
The Dodgers were four outs away from being shutout by Milwaukee until pinch-hitter Esteury Ruiz grounded a ball that ricocheted off of reliever Aaron Ashby into right field to bring home Ohtani— who had his first multi-hit game since June 27— for the Dodgers’ lone run of the game.
Julian Fernández made his Dodger debut on Monday, his first big league appearance since 2021 with the Colorado Rockies. Fernandez was able to record the final six outs on the mound for the Dodgers, but gave up an opposite field two-run home run to Christian Yelich in the seventh inning to bring Milwaukee’s lead to nine.
The Dodgers now tie their longest losing streak of the season as they dropped their fourth in a row, with a run differential of -31 over those four losses.
Game particulars
- Home runs— Andrew Vaughn (6), Christian Yelich (18)
- WP— Freddy Peralta (10-4): 6 IP, 5 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts
- LP— Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-7): 2⁄3 IP, 4 hits, 5 runs (3 earned), 2 walks, 0 strikeouts
Up next
The Dodgers will look to snap their four-game losing streak and even the series against the Brewers on Tuesday (4:40 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA). Clayton Kershaw takes the mound for the 10th time this season against rookie flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski.