LOS ANGELES — On a night billed as a showcase of some of the best Japanese talents in the sport, Yoshinobu Yamamoto loudly announced his return, and quieted at least some concerns about the Los Angeles Dodgers’ rotation prospects this October.
The four names lining the marquee at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night — Shohei Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki in the lineup, Shota Imanaga and Yamamoto on the mound — were more than enough to draw Major League Baseball to put the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs on an international stage in Tokyo next March.
None was under a more intense focus on this night than Yamamoto, the $325 million man pitching for the first time since June 15. The Dodgers have nothing but questions when it comes to what their pitching will look like this postseason, and that has extended even to the man they gave more money to than any other pitcher in baseball history.
The Dodgers brought him back now from a strained rotator cuff in his right shoulder even without a full allotment of pitches because they have little choice; their alternatives are dwindling by the day, with 12 different starting pitchers landing on the injured list at some point this season.
Yamamoto, as much as any of them, can swing the Dodgers’ chances.
The return of Yoshinobu. pic.twitter.com/Zgr5q5yTnM
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 11, 2024
So it was encouraging when Yamamoto’s first fastball to Ian Happ popped into Austin Barnes’ mitt at 96.8 mph. He’d bury a curveball into the dirt that Happ waved at three pitches later. He’d flash velocity bumping 98 mph – his peak before the injury – as he struck out the side on 15 pitches in the first. Five of the first batters he faced struck out, and eight of the 15 he’d face overall in the abbreviated four-inning outing. The Cubs pushed across just one run as they strung together three singles (the latter a high chopper that got past Freddie Freeman at first base) in the second inning.
“We’ll take this every start going forward,” manager Dave Roberts said.
It was as encouraging a night as anyone could have asked for until the showing had a surprise ending: it turned into a disaster. A calamitous eighth inning that featured three errors (one each from Barnes, Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernández) spoiled Yamamoto’s return, leading to five runs in an eventual 6-3 loss.
“It was horrible,” Barnes said.
Alex Vesia’s leadoff walk started the night’s catastrophe. Barnes followed with a wide throw after Dansby Swanson’s dribbler in front of the plate. When Suzuki singled up the middle, it was Edman’s throw that got past Miguel Rojas at shortstop and Max Muncy at third and rolled to the dugout to tie the game. Roberts said Rojas was attempting to deke the runner, leaving Muncy out of place. Muncy said he was expecting Rojas to cut off the throw, adding, “It was thrown right at him.”
That tie was short-lived. The mental miscues were not. When Michael Busch hit a grounder to second base, Hernández couldn’t handle it, lurching forward without the ball to tag Cody Bellinger and start a double play that never came to fruition.
“It was just a different team that I didn’t really recognize in that eighth inning,” said Roberts, who added Andy Pages getting picked off first base to open the seventh inning to his list of frustrations. “For seven innings I thought we played some fantastic baseball. … Those are things that just can’t happen.
“It’s stuff that really hasn’t happened, unfortunately, it seems like it all happened tonight.”
Dodgers second baseman Kiké Hernández drops the ball as he attempts to tag base runner Cody Bellinger. (Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images)
Even the most encouraging night on the starting pitching front in recent memory had to come with something else. Tuesday night, it was a sequence of miscues.
Their lead is four and a half games with 17 to go. A magic number of 13 allows the Dodgers the luxury of looking forward rather than stew in a sloppy eighth inning. Yamamoto makes that picture rosier.
His command was dialed. He relied heavily on his curveball to steal strikes early in the count and end at-bats late. Cubs batters had swings-and-misses at six of the 10 splitters they swung at from Yamamoto.
He even surprised himself with how well he threw. “Today was pretty close to the best of the year,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda.
This was the Yamamoto the Dodgers last saw before his shoulder started to bark in June. In his penultimate start, the 25-year-old walked into Yankee Stadium and delivered what still might be the best outing from a Dodgers pitcher all season — seven scoreless, brilliant innings. Whereas Yamamoto had shown competence and effectiveness for much of his rookie campaign, that June night was a taste of something different: dominance.
His fastball was thrown harder that night than any of his previous 12 big league starts. He also threw 13 sliders, more than he’d thrown the pitch in any outing to date.
His next start was pushed back by a couple of days, then cut short after two innings against the Kansas City Royals.
“I don’t know if it necessarily was the slider that got him. I think everyone has their own difference of opinions,” assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness said, before submitting his own thought. “I think it was more the sense that, that was the highest velocity he’s held all game. … I think it was just a little bit of that. Just kind of irritated it. He felt he was good to go. We were just keeping an eye on it, trying to play bumper lanes on him. It was unfortunate, but fortunately, he’s worked his butt off to get back.”
Yamamoto’s velocity held all night Tuesday against the Cubs, averaging 96.3 mph and topping out at 97.9 mph. He threw one slider, a two-strike offering in the second inning that Isaac Paredes fouled off.
The disastrous eighth left a sour taste at the end of an important night, with more reinforcements still possible. Tyler Glasnow threw in front of a cadre of Dodgers personnel, his second bullpen session since landing on the injured list with right elbow tendonitis. His next step will be throwing two to three simulated innings in Atlanta.
From there, he could return to the Dodgers. Like with Yamamoto, the club has no problem letting their half-billion-dollar duo work their way back into form at the big-league level. They’ve invested enough that, should both be healthy, they will factor prominently into their plans.
“I feel much better about the rotation tonight than I did 24 hours ago,” Roberts said.
This is the position the Dodgers have found themselves in. Clayton Kershaw again threw off a turf mound on Tuesday, trying to find some sort of relief in his painful left big toe. Tony Gonsolin started a rehabilitation assignment on Tuesday with Triple-A Oklahoma City, but Roberts said Tuesday it’s “unlikely” Gonsolin will contribute this season even as a reliever. Abbreviated outings from Glasnow and Yamamoto look more appealing than full ones out of auditioning starters Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller right now.
Yamamoto at least provides answers to the biggest of the Dodgers’ problems.
(Top photo: Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images)
