Last week, Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked almost unhittable in his long-awaited return from the injured list.
In Monday night’s encore at Truist Park, the Japanese rookie right-hander had to be unbreakable instead.
In all four of Yamamoto’s innings against the Atlanta Braves, the leadoff man reached base. All four times, he eventually made it to third.
But, in a 9-0 Dodgers win that secured a four-game series split, Yamamoto managed to escape each jam, pitching four scoreless innings in another encouraging sign for his October prospects.
“It wasn’t as sharp command-wise as his first one back, but he made pitches when he needed to,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I just love the way he navigated.”
Yamamoto was not as crisp as he was in his return from the injured list against the Chicago Cubs, when he struck out eight batters and gave up just an unearned run in his first start in three months after battling a strained rotator cuff.
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Against the Braves, Yamamoto didn’t replicate his nearly perfect fastball command, contributing to a couple of first-inning walks. He sprayed more off-speed pitches, leaving him routinely behind the count. He also averaged only 95 to 96 mph with his heater, a tick down from his adrenaline-fueled return, while giving up four hits, three of them for extra bases.
Yet every time his back was against the wall, Yamamoto found a way to respond.
“I focused on one hitter at a time,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “And stayed calm.”
With runners on the corners in the first, he induced a weak ground ball to end the inning. After both a leadoff double from Sean Murphy in the second inning and a leadoff triple from Ramon Laureano in the fourth, Yamamoto retired the next three batters.
The only time the $325-million offseason signing needed help was in the third. Following a leadoff single from Michael Harris II, Jorge Soler hit a double to deep center that had Harris trying to score. From second base, however, Kiké Hernández made a perfect, tumbling relay throw to the plate, completing half a front flip to nail Harris in a momentum-shifting sequence.