Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto shines in World Series 2 vs. the Yankees

Los Angeles – Yoshinobu Yamamoto continues to prove his worth in his first season with the team Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers signed a 26-year-old Japanese star who helped the team return to the World Series. He made his World Series debut on Saturday delivered a dominant outing In Dodgers won 4-2 over New York Yankees in game 2.

“He is made for moments like this,” said Teoscar Hernández. “We trust him. This morning I told him it would be a good evening for him, and it was. He gave us a chance to score some goals. He put a few zeros on the board and we won the match.

Yamamoto allowed just one hit, striking out four and walking two in 6⅓ innings pitched. He retired 11 straight batters after giving up a home run to Juan Soto in the top of the third inning.

“I thought we played a lot of good at-bats against him in the first couple of innings, which forced him to work longer with his batting,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Once he got a little bit of a lead, he kind of got into his rhythm and did a really good job attacking from the first shot. It was hard to be patient with him when he was attacking and taking the lead.

Why didn’t Yoshinobu Yamamoto throw longer in the second game?

After the game against Giancarlo Stanton, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts walked to the mound to receive the ball from Yamamoto, who received a standing ovation from most of the 52,725 fans in attendance. Yamamoto gave up 54 hits on 86 pitches.

“I tried to focus on facing one batter at a time,” Yamamoto said through a translator. “I could hit when I wanted to.”

Saturday was one of Yamamoto’s longer MLB appearances. He hasn’t pitched in the seventh inning since a regular-season road game against the Yankees in June. He only allowed two hits in that game.

“There wasn’t a lot of stress in the match,” Roberts said of his attitude ahead of Yamamoto’s performance on Saturday. “Since the Yankee game, he hasn’t played a single seventh-inning game. I think he threw 76 pitches, so I felt like we had a good foundation.”

Roberts added that he wanted Yamamoto to pitch against Stanton to extend his usage for one more batter before removing him from the game.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto Contract

Yamamoto signed a 12-year, $325 million contract in December 2023 as a free agent.

When will Yoshinobu Yamamoto be the next Dodgers player?

If needed, Yamamoto will be available to pitch for Game 6 or 7 of the World Series.

Roberts told reporters in September that the plan was for Yamamoto to have five days of rest between starts and that they weren’t going to force him to rest less just because it was the postseason.