by Cary Osborne
Yoshinobu Yamamoto has the eyes of the baseball world upon him tonight at Dodger Stadium with his starting pitching matchup against reigning National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes.
Yamamoto enters the game as the National League’s ERA leader (0.93). Pittsburgh’s Skenes enters it with his star continuing to ascend and his own impressive 2.87 ERA through his first five starts.
On the topic of ERAs, it’s Yamamoto who has begun the 2025 season with one of the best starts to a season by a Dodger starting pitcher.
He is the eighth Dodger in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) to begin a season with a sub-1.00 ERA through his first five starts.
The best ERA of the bunch belongs to Fernando Valenzuela with his legendary 1981 beginning. He had a 0.20 ERA in his first five starts, which included four shutouts. It’s also the lowest ERA in MLB’s Live Ball Era (since 1920) through a starter’s first five starts in a season.
The Dodger eight sub-1.00 ERAs through five starts to begin a season are:
1. Valenzuela: 0.20 ERA in 1981
2. Valenzuela: 0.21 ERA in 1985
3. Don Sutton: 0.42 ERA in 1972
4. Jesse Petty: 0.57 ERA in 1926
5. Tony Gonsolin: 0.76 ERA in 2020
6. Andrew Heaney: 0.77 ERA in 2022
7. Tommy John: 0.86 ERA in 1974
8. Yamamoto: 0.93 ERA in 2025
Andrew Heaney is an interesting one in the group. The left-hander’s first five starts spanned from April 12-Aug. 1. There were two injured list stints in that time, costing Heaney three months of action.
If Yamamoto maintains a sub-1.00 ERA after this start, he will be one of seven Dodgers in the Live Ball ERA to have the number through his first six starts.
Valenzuela’s run with a season ERA below 1.00 reached nine starts when he had a 0.91 ERA entering his 10th start of the 1981 season on May 23.
Yamamoto takes one of the best starts in Dodger history into marquee matchup was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.