Yoshinobu Yamamoto rounds into playoff form as Dodgers move to cusp of NL West title

CINCINNATI –– There’s nothing the Dodgers can do, manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday afternoon, to get their all-important rotation ready for the added workload that will come in the postseason.

Over the final couple weeks of the regular season, they have to just keep running their starters out there, and count on them to round into elevated October form.

That’s what appeared to be happening with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park, in what was the right-hander’s most dominant performance of at least the last couple months.

In the Dodgers’ 4-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds, Yamamoto threw a one-hit masterpiece over seven scoreless innings, flashing the kind of ruthless efficiency that defined his heroics during last year’s playoffs.

The reigning World Series MVP hadn’t exactly been struggling lately, of course. Just last week, he held the Reds to one run over seven innings with 10 strikeouts back in Los Angeles.

But Yamamoto did on Tuesday –– when he walked his first two batters, then retired 21 of his last 22 –– was different, racking up quick and easy outs on soft and harmless contact the way he so often did as the ace of last year’s postseason staff.

Come this year’s playoffs, the Dodgers will need something similar from the 28-year-old. 

They might not be planning on him pitching back-to-back complete games (like he did in Game 2 of the NLCS and Game 2 of the World Series) or providing back-to-back nights of season-saving heroics (following up a victorious Game 6 start in the Fall Classic with a winning three-inning appearance out of the bullpen in Game 7). 

But in a postseason environment, you never know what will be required.

“You can’t just try to create that during the regular season because you want these guys as strong and healthy for the October run [as possible],” Roberts said. “But it’s one of those things that, once we get to the postseason, all bets are off and everyone is going to do what they can to contribute.”

It would help, of course, if the Dodgers’ currently Shohei Ohtani-less offense can keep turning a corner, with Tuesday bringing more positive –– albeit subtle –– signs.

The biggest development: Freddie Freeman returned to the lineup amid his ongoing right knee injury, and finally snapped out of a 3-for-30 slump by collecting three singles in the first, fifth and seventh innings.

“Feels better today than he did yesterday,” Roberts said, after Freeman missed his third game in the last week on Monday, “which is a good thing.” 

The Dodgers’ scoring, meanwhile, came from elsewhere. 

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Hunter Feduccia laced an RBI single in the second off Reds starter Rhett Lowder, maintaining his unexpected status as the Dodgers’ best hitter against right-handed pitching since being re-acquired at the trade deadline (with a team-leading .292 average in such splits since the start of August).

Teoscar Hernández continued his late-season surge with a two-run homer in the third, giving him four home runs, eight extra-base hits, 18 RBIs and a .417 average over his last 14 games.

Even Alex Freeland chipped in with a solo blast in the seventh and a double in the ninth, helping him outshine fellow rookie Josue De Paula (who went 0-for-5 with his first two strikeouts of the season after getting bumped up to the leadoff spot).

That was all enough to help the team lower its magic number to clinch the National League West to two.

Still, when it comes to October, no position group will be more important than the Dodgers’ rotation.

That’s why, right now, outings like the one Yamamoto made on Tuesday, or Tarik Skubal spun the night before (also seven scoreless innings) are the most promising ways the Dodgers can ramp up toward the playoffs.

Once they get there, they’ll need their starters to be on.