Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers a pitching masterclass in Dodgers' win over Reds

Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times on Jul 28, 2025

Published in Baseball

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CINCINNATI — Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s season can be divided into three distinct parts so far.

The thrilling opening act, when the second-year Japanese star started the season with a 4-2 record and 0.90 earned-run average in his first seven starts.

A shaky middle stanza, when the 26-year-old right-hander stumbled with a 2-4 mark and 4.43 ERA over his next eight outings from May 8 to June 19.

And lately, a (what he and the Dodgers at least hope is) a sustained midseason revival, with Yamamoto rounding back into Cy Young-caliber form again with a 3-1 record and 1.71 ERA over his last six trips to the bump.

In a 5-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday, Yamamoto delivered another masterclass for the Dodgers at Great American Ball Park, giving up just one run on four hits while striking out nine over seven superb innings.

It was Yamamoto once again at his best. Filling up the strike zone. Working ahead in counts. And getting almost nothing but empty swings and soft contact after allowing his lone run in the first.

Using every bit of his full six-pitch mix, Yamamoto got 17 whiffs, gave up just two balls hit harder than 95 mph (MLB’s threshold for “hard hit” contact) and largely cruised against a Reds team battling for a National League wild-card spot.

His only trouble came early, when the Reds (56-51) loaded the bases on two singles and a walk in the first before scoring on a ground ball from former Dodgers infielder Gavin Lux.

After that, only one other baserunner even reached scoring position in what was Yamamoto’s fifth start this season of at least seven innings and no more than one run. At one point, he retired 11 hitters in a row. And at no point did the game ever appear in doubt, not after the Dodgers broke open an early 1-1 tie with two runs in the fifth and two more in the seventh.

Monday was the start of what the Dodgers (62-45) envision as a week-long stretch of strong starting pitching.

On Tuesday, Tyler Glasnow will take the mound. On Wednesday, it will be Shohei Ohtani, who was pushed back a few days in order to pitch ahead of an off-day. And after Clayton Kershaw goes on Friday in a series-opener in Tampa Bay, marquee offseason signing Blake Snell will make his long-awaited return from a shoulder injury later in the weekend.

That’s the kind of star power the Dodgers hope to have for the rest of their season, crossing their fingers that the star-studded group will stay healthy and intact through the campaign’s final two months.

Still, while Snell and Glasnow have missed significant time with injury, and Ohtani has been ever-methodically built up, it is Yamamoto who has helped carry the starting staff this season, improving to 9-7 on the year with a 2.48 ERA (third-best in the National League).

The year has challenged the $325 million signing in ways he didn’t experience last season, when he battled his own injuries and inconsistent performance over as an MLB rookie who at times appeared to lack confidence.

From the outset, he embraced the expectations that accompanied his stellar opening month-plus. In May and June, he grinded through occasionally faulty command and a pair of rough outings in which he yielded five runs.

But ever since a scoreless, rain-shortened five-inning start in Colorado at the end of June, Yamamoto has rediscovered his early-season dominance.

The week after that, he held the Chicago White Sox to one run in seven innings. Then, after porous defense and questionable pitch calling contributed to a one-inning, five-run (three-earned) disaster against the Milwaukee Brewers, he answered right back with seven scoreless innings against the San Francisco Giants going into the All-Star break (when he was for the National League team at the Midsummer Classic).

On Monday, Yamamoto got plenty of help from his offense.

Mookie Betts led the game off with a double on his hardest-hit ball (103.8 mph) in almost a month, before scoring on Teoscar Hernández’s RBI single. In the fifth, Ohtani put the Dodgers in front with a two-run double to center. In the seventh, Hernández and Freeman each singled home insurance runs.

The scoring was nice for a Dodgers offense coming off two frustrating losses full of missed chances over this past weekend in Boston.

But in the big picture, it’s Yamamoto and the pitching staff that might be most important in the team’s title defense — with Monday serving as another reminder of the firepower he, and they, possess.

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