by Cary Osborne
Yoshinobu Yamamoto had one of the greatest Septembers by a Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher ever.
He had the best September by a starting pitcher in the Major Leagues this year.
And he is the National League’s Pitcher of the Month for September.
Yamamoto made four starts and allowed two earned runs over 27 innings (0.67 ERA) this month. Only Orel Hershiser in 1988 (0.00 ERA in six starts) and Derek Lowe (0.59 ERA in five starts) had better September ERAs with at least four starts in LA Dodger history.
Yamamoto’s September began by coming within one out of a no-hitter in Baltimore on Sept. 6.
Yamamoto allowed one hit in each of his first three September starts.
He is one of three pitchers in Major League history to allow three hits or fewer over three consecutive starts while logging at least 20 total innings. The others are Cincinnati’s Johnny Vander Meer, who threw consecutive no-hitters in 1938, and San Diego’s Dylan Cease last July.
He ended his month with six shutout innings in Arizona on Thursday.
The right-hander struck out 34 batters in the month and opponents batted .081 against him.
Yamamoto ended the season with a 12–8 record, 2.49 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 201 strikeouts in 173 2/3 innings over 30 starts. His 5.9 hits per nine innings was the lowest in the Major Leagues.
The second-year Dodger will start Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series on Wednesday.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the NL Pitcher of the Month for September was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.