NEW YORK — Yoshinobu Yamamoto tilted his head to the side as he met catcher Dalton Rushing halfway between the mound and the plate.
The Dodgers’ right-hander had just finished a complete game with a cutter on the outside corner for a strikeout. His understated reaction before clasping hands with Rushing seemed to simply say, I guess I did that.
“For Yoshi to come back and do what he did and to perform the way he did,” manager Dave Roberts said, “that’s why he’s our ace.”
Yamamoto’s third career complete game was the highlight of the Dodgers’ 8-2 win over the New York Yankees in Game 1 of a doubleheader on Sunday. It was his first complete game since Game 2 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays.
With a bullpen game scheduled for the evening half of a doubleheader Sunday, the Dodgers were counting on Yamamoto to pitch deep into Game 1 and let as many relievers as possible rest up.
Mission accomplished.
“When I was going into the game early on, I was not thinking about that today we have a doubleheader,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “I was just focusing on my own job. And then on a day like this, to be able to perform like this, that was a good thing.”
Yamamoto was so efficient that he only needed 102 pitches to complete nine innings. He gave up four hits and struck out seven.
He got all the way through the Yankees’ lineup the first time without allowing a baserunner. And in those nine at-bats, he only threw one first-pitch ball.
“It just seemed like he was dictating counts all day long,” Roberts said, “versus trying to be too fine, getting behind.”
To lead off the fourth inning, Yamamoto surrendered a solo homer to Trent Grisham. But then he was back to cruising, retiring 12 of the next 13 batters.
“He had a good seventh, and it just felt like he could finish his game,” Roberts said. “Thinking about where his pitch count was at, the stress, where that was at, and also knowing that we’ve got another game in a few hours.”
Yamamoto would have navigated through the eighth without giving up another run if center fielder Andy Pages hadn’t lost Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s leadoff fly ball in the sun for a double. Chisholm later scored on a single from Anthony Volpe.
Yamamoto’s consistency has steadied the Dodgers’ rotation, while it’s had to navigate injuries to veteran starters Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and most recently Shohei Ohtani. Yamamoto leads the team with 119⅔ innings. And his performance Sunday brought his ERA to 2.78.
“In one game, it’s great,” Roberts said. “But the exponential effect that it has on everybody else, it is huge, and it’s hard to really nail down how valuable that is.
“If you have a guy that not only puts you in a position to win a game, but also saves a lot of arms, that goes hand-in-hand with the top end of the rotation guy.”
Yamamoto said he’s reflected on his season so far, but when asked about his affect on the pitching staff already this year, he pushed the conversation forward.
“The most important part of the season is coming up,” he said. “So I’d like to do my best.”
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