Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s 4-pitch leadoff walk was a red flag. The Dodgers’ ace proved it was a fluke

CINCINNATI — Before each start, Yoshinobu Yamamoto does something remarkable.

Many pitchers long toss as part of their pregame routine. It’s common practice at the high school level and above to warm up the arm, boot up the body, rev up the engine. Throwing a ball far is mighty similar, biomechanically, to throwing a ball fast.

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But Yamamoto takes things to another level. After subjecting his muscles and ligaments through an elaborate stretching program, the Dodger righty begins playing catch, gradually working his way toward the outer reaches of a big league park’s centerfield grasslands. First 200 feet, then 250, 275, up to around 300. But instead of winding himself up with a few hop-steps like most long-tossers, Yamamoto lets it fly from the relative standstill of his usual in-game windup.

It’s a mesmerizing thing to witness in person, this 5-foot-10, 176-pound speck of cerulean catapulting a baseball 100 yards without the help of any real momentum. For a few seconds after release, Yamamoto stands frozen, balancing on his left leg with his right leg dangling in the air. The whole thing looks fake, like a lazy AI generation. How could a dude that small throw a ball that far that easily?

Such is the magic of Yamamoto: Balance, intention, mechanical precision. 

All those qualities, and more, were on display Tuesday evening in Cincinnati as the undersized hurler tore the Reds asunder. He worked seven scoreless innings, struck out seven and allowed just one hit.

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After walking the first two hitters of the game, Yamamoto settled in. Following Elly De La Cruz’s double in the third, the Dodger starter retired the final 13 hitters he faced.

“He’s able to reset on the fly, he’s able to bear down and make pitches when he needs to,” manager Dave Roberts explained after L.A.’s 4-0 win.

Yamamoto needed that adjustability Tuesday after an uncharacteristically poor start to the outing. He walked Cincinnati leadoff man Carlos Jorge, making just the fifth start of his MLB career, on four wayward offerings. It was the first time in Yamamoto’s stateside tenure that he walked the first batter of the game on four pitches. He was similarly over-careful with the following hitter, walking De La Cruz on a 3-1 count. Jorge would reach third base on a sac fly, but get no further as Yamamoto escaped the frame with no damage.

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“At the beginning, because I [didn’t] have my usual stuff mechanically, so mentally I was very calm, and then still kept composed, so I was able to make an adjustment on time,” Yamamoto said afterward.

From there it was business as usual, with Yamamoto deploying his typical barrage of splitters, curves and heaters. It was metronomical, almost humdrum, the way Yamamoto eased through the outing with little trouble. You blinked and he was in the seventh with a zero on the board.

His entire season has carried a similar energy. The National League’s overabundance of headline hurlers has been one of this campaign’s main storylines. Jacob Misiorowski looks primed to win his first Cy Young behind a historic bat-missing stat line. Chris Sale, Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo and Chase Burns have all been excellent as well. Those characters, to a certain extent, have overshadowed Yamamoto’s contributions.

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This tumultuous Dodgers season, too, has stolen some of the shine. So much attention has been paid to the health and exploits of Shohei Ohtani and his quest to re-establish himself as a two-way dynamo over a full season. The acquisition of Tarik Skubal overtook the trade deadline. Through it all, Yamamoto has remained magnificently consistent.

And with October just around the corner, the 2025 World Series hero is looking primed to carry the torch for the Dodgers once again.