NLDS: Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s climb back has him starting Game 1
by Megan Garcia
Much to the fulfillment of the Dodgers and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, he will be pitching in October baseball. He will be the Game 1 starter in the National League Division Series against the Padres on Saturday.
After missing nearly three months of the season, Yamamoto returned on Sept. 10 and made four starts down the stretch.
What do the Dodgers expect on Saturday?
“I think with the postseason, I think every pitcher in the postseason, especially our guys, know that you just go as hard as you can for as long as you can, get as many outs as you can,” said manager Dave Roberts. “So as far as the build-up, I think that what we’ve done is certainly adequate to kind of put us in a good spot to win a ball game.”
So the Dodgers aren’t looking specifically at prescribed number of innings or pitches. They’re more looking at how Yamamoto can put them in the best position to win.
Yamamoto pitched 16 total innings, struck out 31 batters, allowed six earned runs and walked five in those four September starts. His last start in Colorado on Sept. 28 may have been the most promising of the bunch. He went five innings, allowed four hits, two earned runs and struck out six and threw 71 pitches.
“In those four games I was feeling I was getting back my normal feeling as I pitched in more games,” Yamamoto said. “I feel things started coming together.”
Yamamoto was one of the best National League starting pitchers before a right rotator cuff strain sidelined him. His 2.92 ERA and 10.2 strikeouts-per-nine-innings ratio ranked sixth amongst National League pitchers leading up to his injury in June.
After his return on Sept. 10, the most pitches he threw were 79 on Sept. 22.
“I think it was more of getting him back in the flow of pitching,” Roberts said. “Yoshinobu has been really good for us all year long, so kind of getting him back to pitching on a regular basis has been paramount.”
Yamamoto completed at least five innings in 12 of 13 starts before the injury — the outlier being his big-league debut on March 21 in the MLB Seoul Series where he pitched one inning. The 26-year-old right-hander also had five scoreless outings in his first 13 starts.
He reached his pinnacle in New York on June 7. He went seven innings and kept the Yankees — the team with the best record in baseball at the time — scoreless with seven strikeouts.
There has been a lot of talk this week about that performance and Yamamoto rising to the occasion. Saturday, though, is the biggest game of his Major Leagie career.
“I like to focus on winning,” Yamamoto said. “I get myself ready to go up there in a good condition. I have experience in big games, but this is my first MLB playoff, so it’s going to be a big one. I’m going to try to do my best to contribute.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s climb back has him starting Game 1 was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.