{"id":298888,"date":"2025-09-07T13:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T13:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/298888\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T13:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T13:32:10","slug":"mlb-broadcaster-disgusted-after-dodgers-let-yoshinobu-yamamoto-down-as-glaring-playoff-weakness-exposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/298888\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Broadcaster Disgusted After Dodgers Let Yoshinobu Yamamoto Down as Glaring Playoff Weakness Exposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was just looking like the Dodgers had the division all but wrapped up, but if there\u2019s one thing they\u2019ve proven time and again, it\u2019s that they can invent new ways to collapse. Well, take Saturday night against the Orioles, for example. What was supposed to be a historic night, one where Japanese sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto could\u2019ve stamped his name alongside the greats, turned into a nightmare.<\/p>\n

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Notably, Yamamoto was brilliant, taking a no-hitter all the way into the bottom of the ninth with two outs and the Dodgers up 3-0. But on a 2-1 pitch, Jackson Holliday spoiled it, launching a home run to right field. However, surprisingly, the Dodgers then made the questionable call to pull Yamamoto and bring in Blake Treinen to close it out. And, well, that\u2019s where everything unraveled.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 meltdown was so staggering that even the MLB analysts couldn\u2019t hide their frustration. \u201cNot only are we playing awful, but man, we really just let one of our teammates down tremendously right there.\u201d Another added to it, \u201cGood teams finish. They finish. In football, you run the ball out. Basketball, you make sure you get the guy knocked down the free throws to win the ball game. You finish in baseball. Here\u2019s the ball to our closer or the guy that we rely on to close out games. You\u2019ve got to be able to finish this type of game. I feel sick right now, man,\u201c commentators at BaseballNewsToday were left stunned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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USA Today via Reuters<\/p>\n

At the bottom of the ninth inning, Oriole Park was buzzing, and Dodgers fans were hanging on every pitch. It has been more than a decade since Clayton Kershaw\u2019s no-hitter. And here was Yamamoto, carving through hitters with surgical precision, one out away from making history. But then came the gut punch. After Holliday crushed one over Andy Pages\u2019 head in right, it\u2019s all gone.<\/p>\n

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With the score now 3-1, Dave Roberts went to the bullpen. Yamamoto had thrown 112 pitches, a career high, and Roberts decided that was enough. Enter Blake Treinen. What followed was a meltdown for the ages: a double, a hit-by-pitch, a walk, another walk. Suddenly, that comfortable 3-0 lead was cut to 3-2, the bases were still loaded, and the Dodgers kept on calling relievers. The result? A walk-off 4-3 loss!<\/p>\n

The Dodgers added a headache with their offense<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only their closing but also the offense that is haunting the Dodgers on the eve of the postseason.<\/p>\n

Well, since July, the Dodgers\u2019 offense has gone ice cold. If you know, they\u2019re hitting just .235\/.314\/.397 over that span, with only 233 runs scored in 55 games. Surprisingly, that\u2019s 27th out of 30 teams in MLB. The further rankings tell the story: 26th in batting average, 16th in on-base percentage, 21st in slugging, 20th in wRC+, 21st in OPS, and they\u2019ve struck out at one of the highest rates in baseball<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Enough to conclude that the Dodgers are more than struggling with their offense.<\/p>\n

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Since July, only four Dodgers have been consistently above league average with the bat (by wRC+ and at least 100 plate appearances): Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith, Freddie Freeman, and Miguel Rojas. Everyone else has lagged. For instance, Mookie Betts, Andy Pages, Michael Conforto, and Teoscar Hernandez have all had plenty of opportunities but delivered below-average results.<\/p>\n

Now, what makes it even more frustrating is that this same lineup started the season as one of the best in baseball. The talent is still there, but for two months now, the bats just haven\u2019t shown up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was just looking like the Dodgers had the division all but wrapped up, but if there\u2019s one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,39,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,4,3324,3325],"class_list":{"0":"post-298888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-dodgers","12":"tag-ladodgers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesdodgers","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-npstrans","19":"tag-toppic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115163270554557603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298888","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=298888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}