Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto earns milestone win

NEW YORK — Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was surprised.

“I didn’t know that,” he said.

Counting the games Yoshinobu Yamamoto won for the Orix Buffaloes in the Japanese league, the victory picked up by the 5-foot-10 right-hander on Saturday night was the 100th of his nine-year career.

“Well,” Roberts said, “that’s a milestone.”

Yamamoto pitched well below his standard in the Dodgers’ 4–3 win over the Mets at Citi Field. With uncharacteristic control problems inflating his pitch count, he was limited to six innings.

But he somehow gave up only one run.

“I really think it’s a sign of growth to be able to hold the opponent to a run over six innings when I’m throwing like that,” Yamamoto said in Japanese.

Roberts joked that he wouldn’t have toasted Yamamoto’s achievement even if he’d known about it — “One-hundred [wins] in the states, MLB baseball,” he said — but the moment offered the 27-year-old right-hander a chance to reflect on the journey from unheralded prospect to Cy Young Award candidate.

“Of course, it wasn’t easy,” Yamamoto said.

Out of high school, he was a fourth-round pick in the Nippon Professional Baseball draft. 

He performed well enough for the Buffaloes’ minor-league team as a first-year player to be promoted to the organization’s top team at 19.

Fearing his frame wouldn’t hold up to the physical demands of professional baseball, Yamamoto revamped his delivery, which upset the Buffaloes.

He eventually became a three-time most valuable player of the Pacific League, which earned him a 12-year, $325-million contract with the Dodgers.

His transition to the major leagues was initially difficult, as he missed three months in his rookie year with the Dodgers because of shoulder problems.

He’s now a two-time major league All-Star, as well as a World Series MVP. He’s won 30 games in the majors, including 11 this year.

“There were a lot of games in which I got hit,” Yamamoto said. “For some reason, those are the ones I remember.”

Those are the games that made him the pitcher he is now. 

Yamamoto currently leads the majors with 16 quality starts.

“I’m really happy about that,” he said.

The consistency is a reflection of his ability to overcome sudden losses of form, such as the one he experienced on Saturday night.

“From the time I was in the bullpen, I wasn’t able to throw the ball the way I wanted,” Yamamoto said. “I went into the game more careful than usual, but I couldn’t get a good feel. It turned into a game in which I had to grind.”

Which was why Roberts described the performance as “good, not great.”

“There were some bad walks in there,” Roberts said. “He wasn’t as efficient as he has been. The fastball command, the split, just wasn’t where it has been in the last six weeks.”

Yamamoto was in constant danger.

The Mets had runners on first and second base in the opening frame, but Yamamoto ended the threat by striking out Luis Robert Jr.

With runners on first and second again in the third inning, this time with only one out, Yamamoto retired Bo Bichette and Carson Benge in succession.

The Mets scored on him in the fifth inning when Bichette singled with runners on the corners. 

But that was it.

“I think that he made pitches when he needed to, as he always does,” Roberts said.

Yamamoto was 70–29 over seven NPB seasons. He’s now 30-16 in the majors, including 11–6 this year.

Reaching 100 wins made Yamamoto think about the next 100. 

Considering that Yamamoto didn’t become a full-time starter until the third of his seven seasons with the Buffaloes, he guessed he would take less time to go from 100 to 200 wins than he did from zero to 100.

“From here on out, I think I should be able to stay in the rotation,” he said. “I want to be the kind of player who performs well year after year.”

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