ATLANTA -- For the fourth time this season, Yoshinobu Yamamoto posted a start of at least six innings without an earned run as the right-hander helped the Dodgers to a 2-1 win over the Braves on Friday at Truist Park.
Yamamoto, who was named National League Pitcher of the Month for March/April, allowed just one hit with six strikeouts and issued two walks over six scoreless innings.
Yamamoto did not allow a hit until the sixth, when Braves third baseman Austin Riley broke up the no-no with a double. Yamamoto subsequently induced an inning-ending groundout off the bat of designated hitter Marcell Ozuna. While Yamamoto said he wasn't thinking about the possibility of a no-hitter, his manager, Dave Roberts, said he had one in mind with the way Yamamoto was commanding the ball.
“I was [thinking about a no-hitter] for a quick minute and Riley changed that,” Roberts said. “I think he felt my brain thinking about a no-hitter. He had no-hit stuff tonight.”
Yamamoto was pulled after the sixth, his pitch count at 91. Roberts said Yamamoto may have gone into the seventh if he didn’t give up the double to Riley, but Yamamoto will likely go on shorter-than-usual rest before his next start. Friday was Yamamoto’s first time pitching on five days of rest this season; he ordinarily takes six days between starts, but the Dodgers have just begun a stretch of 10 games in 10 days.
“I think in hindsight, he would have gone into the seventh, but I don’t know how much further past that,” Roberts said. “There is a very good possibility that he’s going to go a day shorter than he normally does.”
Yamamoto was coming off a start in which he gave up a season-high three runs (one earned) in five innings. In that game, a 3-0 loss to the Pirates on April 25, Yamamoto tied his season high with five hits while walking a season-high four batters.
“I think today, the [splitter] was fantastic,” Roberts said. “The command was back to being who he is. I think the last one, he wasn’t as sharp, but he got back the command and the split really played tonight.”
Yamamoto is seventh in MLB among all pitchers with 49 strikeouts, and his 0.90 ERA ranks first among qualified starters. Yamamoto likened his dominance this season to his seven seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball (2017-23). In the Japanese league, Yamamoto went 70-29 with 1.82 ERA and a 0.935 WHIP over 897 innings.
“I’ve been able to perform at a high level [in MLB],” Yamamoto said. “I think it’s really close to my best time in Japan.”
Roberts has come to expect a high level of importance every time Yamamoto takes the mound.
“I think we all are,” Roberts said. “He’s turning himself into a staff ace. When you look at the handful of guys in the big leagues that, when they take the ball you know they’re going to go six innings [and] you’re going to get a good chance to win, he’s putting himself in that category.”
Yamamoto has not allowed more than two earned runs in a start this season and he’s gone at least five innings in every start. On Friday, he and Roberts credited his curveball as one of the reasons for his success.
“It’s difficult [to touch the curveball when it’s on],” Roberts said. “And I think that’s something that he’s really bought into. We talked about it before the game in the sense of the front-to-back and utilizing his breaking ball -- not just being a two-pitch pitcher. It just gets guys off his velocity.”
On May 2, 1995, 30 years ago to the day, Hideo Nomo made his Major League debut for the Dodgers in San Francisco. Nomo, who is credited for more Japanese players coming to play in the United States, won 123 games in his 12-year career, the most of any Japanese-born player in MLB history.
Yamamoto, in the second year of a 12-year contract with the Dodgers, now has 11 wins -- and the potential to challenge Nomo's record if he keeps throwing the ball like this.