Yamamoto finishes his regular season with promise, as Dodger secure home-field advantage in postseason
by Cary Osborne
The offense, the records, the individual offensive achievements — they were all there for the Dodgers in the penultimate game of the regular season in Denver.
But Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s effective final regular season start of the season might be the most meaningful nugget to take out of the Dodgers’ 13–2 win.
Yamamoto threw five efficient innings in the pitching landmine of Coors Field — the first time he has completed five frames since his return on Sept. 10 after missing nearly three months with a rotator cuff injury.
Yamamoto will be one of the Dodgers’ starters in the National League Division Series, which begins Oct. 5 at Dodger Stadium. He figures to be a vital figure in the Dodgers’ run to a World Series title.
That run, if it gets to the World Series, will now be with the Dodgers holding home-field advantage throughout the postseason, as they have clinched the Majors’ best record in 2024. They are 97–64.
Yamamoto has seven of those victories — as he finished the season at 7–2 with a 3.00 ERA in 18 starts. The Dodgers went 11–7 in those games.
The right-hander allowed four hits and two runs, walked none and struck out six, throwing 71 pitches — 49 for strikes. He allowed only one hard-hit ball — an Ezequiel Tovar home run in the third inning.
Walker Buehler is the only other Dodger pitcher to allow one hard-hit ball or fewer in a start of at least five innings this season. Buehler allowed one on May 18.
Rookie Justin Wrobleski backed up Yamamoto with four shutout innings on Saturday.
Triple Crown Watch
Shohei Ohtani went 2-for-5 on Saturday. National League batting average leader Luis Arraez sat out San Diego’s game on Saturday.
Ohtani is 196-for-632 this season, batting .31013.
Arraez is 199-for-634, batting .31388.
If Arraez does not play in the Padres’ regular-season finale, Ohtani would have to go 4-for-4 or 4-for-5 to win the National League batting title.
Ohtani will win the National League home run and RBI crowns this season. He didn’t homer on Saturday or drive in a run. He has 54 home runs and 130 RBI.
He stole his 58th base, though — his 35th consecutive stolen base.
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A Healthy Offense
The Dodgers reached double digits in runs for the second straight game. They have scored 107 runs in their last 13 games — an average of 8.2 runs per game.
The Dodgers scored 104 runs in 24 July games.
Six players had multi-hit games on Saturday, with three-hit games from Chris Taylor, Gavin Lux and Kiké Hernández — who hit his 12th home run (a three-run blast) of the year in the second inning.
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Teoscar Hernández hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning. It’s a career-high 33 homers for the veteran outfielder. He has 99 RBI this season.
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What’s Next
Game 162: The Dodgers (97–64) finish the regular season against the Rockies (61–100) at 12:10 p.m.
Yamamoto finishes his regular season with promise, as Dodger secure home-field advantage in… was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.