Over his last four starts, he’s posted a 5.18 earned-run average.
In the most recent game he pitched, he gave up three home runs for the first time in either the majors or Japan.
Only in this instance, the numbers are misleading.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is ready.
He’s ready to start delivering the kinds of performances that were anticipated of him after his historic performance in the playoffs last year.
He’s ready to start pitching like the Cy Young Award contender he was expected to be.
“Almost there,” Yamamoto said in Japanese.
His line in his loss to the San Francisco Giants was particularly hideous: a season-high five runs in 6 ⅓ innings.
His record dropped to 3-3. His ERA inflated to 3.60.
The results didn’t reflect the quality of his pitches.
Yamamoto threw his two fastest pitches of the season in the 6-2 defeat, a couple of fastballs that were clocked at 98.0 mph. His average fastball velocity of 96.7 mph was his best of the season, 2 mph faster than he was throwing just three starts earlier.
“My pitches,” Yamamoto said, “were a lot better.”
He was pleased with his feel for his splitter, which generated seven whiffs. He entered the game with a first-inning 7.71 ERA, but he addressed that problem, retiring the first eight batters he faced.
“I thought he came out and pitched really well out of the gate,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Because of that, he said there were no similarities between his current four-start downturn and his midseason slump last year.
Last season, beginning on June 1, he endured a seven-start period in which he was 2-4 with a 4.39 ERA.
“I think my feel is much better than it was then,” Yamamoto said.
Of his loss to the Giants, he said, “I can’t say much about my pitching today because I lost, but I really think it was a fine line (between victory and defeat).”
The good news was that Yamamoto limited the Giants to just four hits over the first six innings. The bad news: Three of the hits were homers.
Two of the long balls were hit by the No. 9 hitter on the lowest-scoring team in the majors, catcher Eric Haase. The other was launched by the Giants’ No. 8 hitter, Harrison Bader.
“I think that if I’d been a little more mindful, the results would’ve been different,” Yamamoto said. “That’s a fundamental part of pitching and I think if I can take care of that, it will be a factor in my improvement.”
The homers were an important reminder to Yamamoto that he’s not pitching in the power-deprived Japanese league.
Or, as Roberts said, “Major-league hitters are major-league hitters.”
Haase’s first homer, which was hit in the third inning, came on a cutter that was over the middle of the plate.
Yamamoto lamented the back-to-back homers he served up to Bader and Haase in the fifth inning, especially since the Dodgers were leading up to that point because of a third-inning blast by slumping Shohei Ohtani.
Yamamoto pitched into the seventh inning, only to give up a leadoff double to Heliot Ramos, which was followed by a single by Willy Adames that advanced Ramos to third base. A blistering lineout by rookie Bryce Eldridge convinced Roberts that Yamamoto was weakening and prompted the manager to place the game in the hands of Blake Treinen.
Treinen allowed both of the inherited runners to score in what ended up being a three-run inning for the Giants, who extended their lead from 3-2 to 6-2.
The Dodgers lost for the 14th time in 23 games, but Yamamoto sounded certain he would soon deliver better results.
“I know exactly what I did wrong,” Yamamoto said.
When he knows that, he usually figures out how to adjust. He did in Japan. He did in his first two years with the Dodgers.
His next start will be important: on Monday in the opening game of a three-game series against the team that leads the Dodgers by a half-game in the National League West, the San San Diego Padres.
Yamamoto should be ready.
