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The Los Angeles Dodgers put an end to a four-game losing streak on Tuesday night, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks behind a dominant outing from starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The right-hander was back to his dominant self after a pair of sub-par outings to his standards, tossing seven innings of no-run baseball. In fact, he carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Ketel Marte broke it up with a base knock.
Yamamoto got into some trouble in the seventh, but Dave Roberts left his ace out there to pitch out of the jam. In the process, he set a new record for himself with 110 pitches. That's the most he's thrown in a single outing since coming to the big leagues.
Roberts explained why he decided to let Yamamoto figure things out.
Via ESPN:
“I just felt, right there in that moment, he was our best option,” Roberts said of the decision to leave Yamamoto in the game. “And it's not about pitch count, it's not about third time through — it's about he's our best option. And I felt, with where our club is at right now, we need to give him the best chance to get out of that inning. And he proved all of us right.”
Roberts spoke on how the Dodgers' righty fixed a small issue with his delivery from the two previous starts and also used his curveball a lot more in Tuesday's outing. The four-seamer and splitter are his most-used pitches, but the breaking ball is next at 19%, per Baseball Savant.
“I'm glad because I was able to contribute to today's win,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “I'd like to continue bringing my contribution to the team.”
The 26-year-old is now second in the National League in ERA (1.86). Kodai Senga, who is also from Japan, sits at 1.43. With the Dodgers' rotation still missing the likes of Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, everyone must begin to step it up on the bump, and that's exactly what Yamamoto did. Hopefully, it helps LA build some momentum.
