Hours before first pitch Friday, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was honored with the National League’s pitcher of the month award for March and April.
Given how he looked in a scoreless six-inning, six-strikeout, one-hit gem against the Atlanta Braves hours later, it might not be the last award he vies for this year.
After establishing himself as a breakout star in the opening month, Yamamoto continued his ascent up the hierarchy of major-league starters in the Dodgers’ 2-1 win Friday at Truist Park.
He carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He held an opponent without a run for the third time in his last four starts. And he dropped his early-season ERA to an MLB-best 0.90, having yielded just four earned runs in his first 40 innings of the season.
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“I’ve been able to perform at a very high level,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda after the game. “I think it’s really close to my best times in Japan.”
Already in recent weeks, manager Dave Roberts has referred to Yamamoto — the three-time Japanese league MVP who signed for $325 million two offseasons ago — as the ace of the Dodgers’ pitching staff.
But now, with the Dodgers (22-10) missing two other nine-figure rotation signings in Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow because of shoulder injuries, Yamamoto’s value might be even greater than just that.
“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, you’re going to get a chance to win, a good chance to win, they can manage some stress, they’re always the best option — he’s putting himself in that category,” Roberts said. “I think there’s just been so much consistent performance from Yoshi in big games that it’s real. He does think he’s one of those guys.”
Yamamoto didn’t look like that caliber of pitcher in his previous start, a season-worst five-inning, three-run outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates last week in which he issued a career-high four walks.
But after a mental “reset” — something Yamamoto says he does between every start — the 26-year-old right-hander responded with one of his best outings of the season against the resurgent Braves (who are 14-17, but had won nine of their previous 12).
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto reacts in the fourth inning against the Braves on Friday. (Mike Stewart / Associated Press)
“He dominated today, and I feel like it wasn’t even the best version of Yama, which is crazy,” reliever Evan Phillips said. “When you talk about routine and work ethic and the talent, this guy’s one of the best in the game, for sure. It’s fun to watch.”
Friday might have been the best example of Yamamoto’s renewed assuredness yet.
In Yamamoto’s first three innings, the only real danger he encountered was to his own person. With two outs in the first inning, he ducked out of the way of a 107-mph line drive from Matt Olson that Mookie Betts snared at shortstop. To lead off the second, Sean Murphy rifled a 106-mph comebacker that Yamamoto snagged with his glove.
His pitching counterpart, Grant Holmes, wasn’t so lucky.
After matching Yamamoto zero for zero (in both runs and hits) in the early going, the Atlanta right-hander suffered a bad break in the fourth, when Betts smoked a 94-mph comebacker off his backside for the night’s first hit. That was followed by a single from Freddie Freeman, who hit a ground ball that Olson failed to snare at first base, and a walk to Teoscar Hernández, loading the bases with one out. Will Smith then lifted a sacrifice fly to right, opening the scoring.
Not until the sixth inning, when Betts continued his resurgence from a deep April slump with a solo home run to left field, did the Dodgers get to Holmes again.
But the way Yamamoto was dealing, the lack of run support posed little problem.
Outside of two walks to Marcell Ozuna — who won an 11-pitch battle in the first inning, and a six-pitch duel in the fourth — the Braves mustered nothing until a two-out double by Austin Riley in the sixth. And even that was immediately negated when Yamamoto induced a groundout from Ozuna to end the inning in the next at-bat.
“I was thinking about it a little bit,” Roberts said of Yamamoto’s growing no-hit possibility. “Because, yeah, he had no-hit stuff tonight.”
Instead, with Yamamoto likely to start on five days’ rest for the first time this season next week — he had been on a six-days-rest schedule — Roberts ended Yamamoto’s night there, pulling him after 91 pitches.
His replacement, Kirby Yates, gave up a leadoff homer in the seventh to Olson, cutting the Dodgers’ lead in half.
But, even after a 1-hour, 13-minute rain delay at the end of the eighth, the Dodgers held on, with Tanner Scott and Evan Phillips slamming the door to preserve Yamamoto’s fourth victory and improve the team’s record to 5-2 in games he has pitched.
“Just executing all of his pitches. Just making it really hard on the hitters,” Smith said of Yamamoto’s dominance. “Right now, he’s pitching like the best pitcher in the world. We’re just fortunate to have him.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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