Top of the order’s production and Yamamoto’s pitching propel Dodgers
by Megan Garcia
In the Dodgers’ 5–2 win over the Reds on Monday, the top of the Los Angeles lineup helped seal one of Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s strong starts of the season with a victory.
Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman were a combined 6-for-17 and accounted for all five RBI. Betts scored three of the runs.
“The offense is predicated on those guys and revolves around those guys,” said manager Dave Roberts.
It’s the third time in the Dodgers’ last five games that the top four in the order has combined for at least six hits in a game.
The Dodgers have won all three of the games.
Betts doubled his second-half run total with the three runs.
Hernández’s production has ticked up recently with six RBI in his last four games. He and Ohtani each drove in two runs on Monday.
Freeman drove in a run with a seventh inning single. He has reached base in seven consecutive games via a hit or walk.
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“Shohei’s double was big to give us a little breather. Mookie showing some life was good. But it’s all predicated on all those (top of the order) guys being good. That’s kind of why they’re on the roster.” Roberts said.
Yamamoto’s 21 swings and misses set a new career-high mark for the right-hander. His previous mark was 20 whiffs against the Pirates on April 18. He also reached a first-pitch strike on 17 of the 27 batters he faced.
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“That’s something I’m always trying to make happen during the game,” Yamamoto said of first-pitch strikes. “That’s very important, I know that. In my recent outing, I wasn’t able to do that. So it was good that I was able to do that tonight.
His splitter was the standout.
Opposing batters are hitting .137 (20-for-146) against Yamamoto’s splitter this season after the Reds went 0-for-3 against it. It recorded three of nine strikeouts — the most of any of his pitches on Monday. He allowed only one run on four hits in the series opener.
This was also Yamamoto’s fifth start in which he has pitched at least seven innings.
Top of the order‘s production and Yamamoto’s pitching propel Dodgers was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.