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The Los Angeles Dodgers took a loss as division play began on Thursday night.
Facing off against the National League West rival Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers fell 5-3 even though they had their best pitcher on the mound. Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up five earned runs in five innings, including a grand slam for the first time in his Major League Career, and his pristine 0.90 ERA rose to 1.80.
It was the first time Yamamoto has run into real trouble this season and it came after the Dodgers made a big change to his schedule.
“Yamamoto had seemingly been in control of everything through his first seven starts,” Fabian Ardaya wrote for The Athletic. “In his eighth, the first one he’s made on five days’ rest instead of his typical six, he lacked control of anything. He created a mess in the fourth inning…”
The Dodgers seemed to have little choice but to ask Yamamoto to carry a heavier load. In Japan, where Yamamoto enjoyed a stellar career before joining the Dodgers, starting pitchers typically get six days off between starts. But with several pitchers on the injured list, including frontline starters Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, the Dodgers opted to push Yamamoto to the U.S. norm of five days’ rest.
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It’s unclear how much the limited rest played into Yamamoto’s off night. But as the season wears on and the Dodgers continue to face significant challenges within the division, it seems their ace will have to adjust.
“The last thing they want, in a year they’ve already dealt with an early wave of pitching injuries, is to be grinding through a division race during the stretch run of the season, or be in any danger of falling to a wild-card place,” Jack Harris wrote for the Los Angeles Times. “The way the division has played to this point, however, keeps those outcomes as real possibilities.”
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Peter Chawaga is a veteran journalist covering Major League Baseball for The Sporting News. His MLB reporting has included feature interviews with commissioner Rob Manfred and Hall of Fame slugger David Ortiz, salary analysis, player rankings and more. He has covered baseball for Forbes, Yardbarker, Pitcher List, Athlon and other outlets.
With over ten years of newsroom experience, he has previously covered finance, technology, arts, and culture for newspapers, magazines, and websites nationwide. He graduated from Wake Forest University with a degree in English and journalism.
English (US)