{"id":160511,"date":"2025-07-08T09:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T09:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/160511\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T09:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T09:43:12","slug":"dodgers-cant-overcome-yoshinobu-yamamotos-horrific-first-inning-fall-to-brewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/160511\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers can’t overcome Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s horrific first inning, fall to Brewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> was one pitch away from a clean first inning Monday night.<\/p>\n

Instead, it devolved into a sudden, unstoppable nightmare.<\/p>\n

In the shortest start of his MLB career, and in an outing that somehow rivaled his disastrous debut in the majors last March in South Korea, Yamamoto missed one chance after the next to escape the bottom of the first against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field \u2014 an inning which poor defense, questionable pitch calling and bad batted ball luck all also contributed to his 41-pitch collapse.<\/p>\n

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By the time it was all over, the Brewers were leading by five runs, manager Dave Roberts was summoning a reliever just two outs into the game, and the Dodgers were well on their way to a fourth consecutive defeat, never coming close to a comeback in a 9-1 loss to open a six-game road trip.<\/p>\n

Read more: How Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto ‘elevated his game to another level’ in his second year<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a time,\u201d Roberts said afterward, as the Dodgers matched their longest losing streak of the season, \u201cfor us to kind of look at ourselves and be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

They certainly won\u2019t want to look back on what transpired in the first inning Monday night.<\/p>\n

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Sal Frelick hammered a hanging curveball for a leadoff double. William Contreras drew a walk when Yamamoto couldn\u2019t locate his splitter near the zone. And the two outs that followed \u2014 a fly ball from Jackson Chourio and grounder from Christian Yelich \u2014 proved to be only a temporary reprieve.<\/p>\n

The pivotal moment came during the next at-bat when newly acquired Brewers slugger Andrew Vaughn came to the plate in his first game with the team. He got three straight sliders from Yamamoto to start, fanning on the first before laying off two that missed the zone next. Then, after a called strike on a fastball at the knees evened the count 2-and-2, catcher Will Smith dialed up another curveball from Yamamoto.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we went to the well one too many times with the slider,\u201d Roberts said, later adding: \u201cHe hits in-zone spin really well, medium-speed. And he sees four of them in an at-bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamamoto\u2019s execution of the pitch didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n

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What was supposed to be down and on the outside corner instead fluttered up and above the zone. What could have been a whiff to end the inning instead ended with Vaughn connecting on a mighty upper-cut swing. And what had been a scoreless early ballgame suddenly became a 3-0 Brewers lead, with Vaughn going deep to left to christen his Brewers debut with a home run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the [first] three sliders I threw were located pretty good,\u201d Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. \u201cBut that last one, I elevated it. It got away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somehow, the inning would only get worse from there.<\/p>\n

Read more: ‘Really impressed.’ Shohei Ohtani’s return to two-way role going (mostly) well a month in<\/a><\/p>\n

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Despite entering the night coming off a first-career All-Star selection, and leading the majors in road ERA at 1.57, Yamamoto failed to settle down.<\/p>\n

In a 1-and-2 count against Isaac Collins, he left a fastball down the middle that was hammered for a single. After falling behind 3-and-0 to Brice Turang, Yamamoto worked the count full only to miss badly with a fastball and issue an inning-extending walk. Suddenly, his pitch count was climbing out of control. And with the Dodgers stuck on two outs in the inning, Roberts began to get the bullpen to stir.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy tempo wasn\u2019t really good, I couldn\u2019t get my rhythm,\u201d said Yamamoto, whose overall ERA on the season rose to 2.77. \u201cThat was on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamamoto appeared to finally find an escape route against Caleb Durbin, inducing a grounder with a splitter that was hit straight to shortstop Mookie Betts. But, in a rare defensive lapse at his new position, Betts spiked a throw to first that Freddie Freeman couldn\u2019t corral. Collins came racing around from second to score. The inning stayed alive when it once again should\u2019ve ended.<\/p>\n

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Read more: Clayton Kershaw grateful for \u2018weird but cool\u2019 All-Star selection as \u2018Legend Pick\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI can’t make an error right there,\u201d said Betts, who has had a couple misplays in recent weeks after making just one error in a 61-game stretch from mid-April to late June. \u201cRegardless of the situation, I need to make that play.”<\/p>\n

Yamamoto\u2019s leash finally ran out on pitch 41, when Andruw Monasterio lobbed a bloop RBI single down the right-field line in the next at-bat. As another run scored, Roberts came walking out of the dugout to give the team\u2019s season-long ace an unimaginably early hook.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s usually pretty good about finding his way out of it, or minimizing some damage to kind of reset and get back out there and give us a little bit more length,\u201d Roberts said of Yamamoto. \u201cBut today it just didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The two teams played the final eight innings. But the result already seemed well in hand.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers<\/p>\n

Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani reacts negatively during an at-bat against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday in Milwaukee. (Aaron Gash \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 lineup was shorthanded, missing Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez with a bruised foot and Tommy Edman with a pinky toe fracture (both are expected back in the lineup by Wednesday). Before the game, Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez was also put on the injured list with an elbow injury that had been bothering him since he made an awkward slide in Cleveland in late May, and flared up to the point of requiring a cortisone shot this past weekend. Not to be forgotten, Max Muncy also remains sidelined by his bum knee.<\/p>\n

In their places the Dodgers started James Outman in center field (who was called up from triple A pregame), Miguel Rojas at third base and Hyeseong Kim at second against Brewers All-Star right-hander Freddy Peralta.<\/p>\n

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The outcome was predictable: Six innings of shutout ball in which the Dodgers managed only five hits, one walk and struck out seven times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to pitch better, we got to defend better, we got to take more competitive at-bats,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re just not doing any of those things right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.<\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yoshinobu Yamamoto was one pitch away from a clean first inning Monday night. Instead, it devolved into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[30531,1749,7583,5,136,3800,3615,1301,135,39,815,753,1393,1987,4362,3875,4571,5953,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,1532,8935,843,4,1526,312,468,1528,1558,880,1535,3801,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-160511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-aaron-gash","9":"tag-andrew-vaughn","10":"tag-andruw-monasterio","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-brewers","13":"tag-brice-turang","14":"tag-caleb-durbin","15":"tag-christian-yelich","16":"tag-cleveland","17":"tag-dodgers","18":"tag-freddie-freeman","19":"tag-freddy-peralta","20":"tag-hyeseong-kim","21":"tag-inning","22":"tag-isaac-collins","23":"tag-jackson-chourio","24":"tag-james-outman","25":"tag-kike-hernandez","26":"tag-la","27":"tag-la-dodgers","28":"tag-ladodgers","29":"tag-los-angeles","30":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","31":"tag-losangeles","32":"tag-losangelesdodgers","33":"tag-max-muncy","34":"tag-miguel-rojas","35":"tag-milwaukee","36":"tag-mlb","37":"tag-mookie-betts","38":"tag-sal-frelick","39":"tag-shohei-ohtani","40":"tag-teoscar-hernandez","41":"tag-the-dodgers","42":"tag-tommy-edman","43":"tag-will-smith","44":"tag-william-contreras","45":"tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}