Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start winner-take-all NLDS Game 5 for Dodgers
Exactly 25 hours before the biggest game of his team’s season, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was sure of only one thing about his pitching plans for Game 5 in the National League Division Series on Friday night.
“I’m sure Yoshinobu will be a part of it,” Roberts said Thursday, referring to $325-million offseason signing Yoshinobu Yamamoto, his Game 1 starter.
Later the Dodgers announced Yamamoto will start Friday’s winner-take-all showdown with the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium, clearing up one part of a pitching plan that could determine the fate of L.A.’s 98-win season.
“Overall, kind of where Yoshinobu is at, I feel really comfortable,” Roberts said earlier in the day.
“I’m personally really looking forward to it, how he will pitch,” teammate Shohei Ohtani added in Japanese, dropping a hint that Yamamoto would square off against fellow Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish.
“There will be pressure,” Ohtani added. “But personally, I’m looking forward to it.”
What other options do the Dodgers have after eight of their relievers shut down the Padres in an 8-0 victory at Petco Park on Wednesday night?
Before the announcement, it was unclear if Yamamoto would start or follow an opener — with Roberts leaving open the possibility of leaning on his relievers again after the Dodgers’ bullpen game in Game 4 produced an 8-0 win.
The bullpen still could play a key role Friday night, with all of the top relievers expected to be available after Thursday’s off day. But, Yamamoto will get the ball first, shouldering the kind of intense October pressure the Dodgers envisioned when they signed him to his 12-year contract.
When the Dodgers made a late change to their starting rotation for this series last week, they did it with this exact situation in mind.
After initially announcing that trade-deadline acquisition Jack Flaherty would start Game 1, the Dodgers instead bumped Yamamoto up to the opener and Flaherty to Game 2. The idea was to keep both pitchers available for a potential fifth game, giving Yamamoto his standard five days of rest — a schedule he has followed all season since arriving from Japan — and Flaherty the typical four days most pitchers take between starts.
However, circumstances changed in the four games since, which the Dodgers and Padres split. Yamamoto not only was knocked around in Game 1, giving up five runs in three innings, but he also was believed to be tipping pitches, a problem that plagued him early in his rookie season.
Flaherty, meanwhile, was only slightly better in Game 2, managing to pitch into the sixth inning but also giving up four runs in a loss.
The Dodgers’ bullpen-game success Wednesday night provided another twist. After watching eight pitchers cover nine dominant innings, Roberts seemed intrigued by the idea of running back a similar plan.
“We’re still talking through it,” Roberts said. “I think the main variable is seeing our [relief] guys go out there today, play catch, see how they feel, which will give us a little bit more information on ultimately who takes the brunt of the game, who starts the game.”
“But coming off of what they did last night,” Roberts added of the bullpen, “makes everyone feel pretty confident going into Game 5.”
Instead, the Dodgers will begin the game with Yamamoto, confident the pitch-tipping issues that possibly plagued him in Game 1 have been rectified.
“I think we’ve cleaned stuff up,” Roberts said. “When he’s convicted and ripping it and attacking hitters with his pitch mix, he’s as good as anyone.”
A 26-year-old who had a decorated career in Japan, Yamamoto struggled at times in a rookie campaign that wasn’t as smooth as expected.
In his debut during the season-opening trip to South Korea, he was battered by the Padres for five runs in just one inning.
The Dodgers believed then that Yamamoto had been tipping pitches, at least from the stretch — an issue that, once rectified with a tweak to his prepitch glove positioning, paved the way for steady improvement early in the season.
In 12 starts from March 30 to June 7, Yamamoto was 8-4 with a 2.41 ERA, averaging more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings with a mid-90s fastball and off-speed combination of curveballs, sliders and splitters.
That run crescendoed with a June 7 start against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, when Yamamoto averaged a season-best 97 mph with his fastball en route to a scoreless seven-inning, seven-strikeout, two-hit gem.
However, in Yamamoto’s following outing (which was delayed several days because of tightness in his triceps), he lasted just two innings before exiting with a shoulder injury.
The diagnosis was a strained rotator cuff. And for the next three months, Yamamoto was on the injured list.
He returned to action in early September, making four starts at the end of the season. While his ERA was 3.38 over that stretch, he pitched past the fourth inning just one time.
Then came Game 1 last Saturday, when he gave up three runs in the first inning and two more in the third.
“There’s some things that I think we’re going to dig into, because I think at second base they had some things with his glove and giving away some pitches,” Roberts said after that game, indicating Padres baserunners were identifying Yamamoto’s pitches and relaying signs to the batter.
The Dodgers want their fans to be energetic and vocal, but they don’t want anything like what happened in Game 2 against the Padres at Dodger Stadium.
“That’s part of baseball,” Roberts added. “So it’s on us to kind of clean that up and not give away what pitch he’s going to throw.”
The Dodgers might not need a ton of length from Yamamoto on Friday night, with a deep and versatile bullpen (which also should have Flaherty’s services if needed) beckoning behind him.
But they will need him to set the tone and try to continue the staff’s streak of 15 scoreless innings over the last game and a half.
“I think our only focus,” Roberts said, “is finding the best pitchers to prevent runs tomorrow.”
Freeman likely, Rojas doubtful for Game 5
While Roberts said he doesn’t anticipate injured shortstop Miguel Rojas (adductor) being in the starting lineup, he did provide a more optimistic update on first baseman Freddie Freeman and his sprained right ankle.
“I think Freddie is going to be in there,” Roberts said, after Freeman was removed early from Games 2 and 3 and didn’t play in Game 4.
“With two days off — he didn’t try to get ready yesterday — he’s feeling better today with treatment. So I just feel like tomorrow he’ll be in there.”
Freeman spent a few minutes on the field during Thursday’s workout, going through agility and baserunning drills. His right ankle was heavily wrapped in spatting tape, something Freeman said he might use Friday.
“We’re trying everything,” he joked.
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