Padres Pitcher Wants to Learn How to Throw Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Signature Pitch
Los Angeles Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto is having a brilliant sophomore campaign.
With an ERA of 2.20 across 73.2 innings of work, the right-hander is putting the league on notice and getting closer to the level of dominance not seen since he last pitched in Nippon Professional Baseball.
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One of the biggest reasons for Yamamoto’s success — and specifically the reason for 42 of his 86 strikeouts — is his splitter.
With a whiff rate of 43.3 percent on that pitch, Michael King of the divisional rival San Diego Padres spoke on his desire to add that dominant offering to his own pitch mix.
“Oh yeah — It’s, ‘Can I add this to my arsenal? Can I try to do what he’s doing?’” King said as rotational teammate Nick Pivetta was nearby. “We just saw Yamamoto throw his splitter and [Pivetta] was like, ‘I wish I could throw the Yamamoto splitter,’ and I’m like, ‘You can. You just have to figure it out.’ He’s just not that athletic enough to do it.
“It’s all right.”
The dominant splitter is still not used the most in Yamamoto’s arsenal, as batters only see it on 27.7 percent of his pitches. When opposing hitters do see the splitter, it has a batting average of just .121 against it.
Although the splitter is by far the most effective pitch from the Dodgers ace, his fastball has proven to be just as nasty.
The four-seam fastball that Yamamoto throws is his most-used offering, thrown 36.6 percent of the time, with an opposing batting average of just .193 against it. Nobody has hit a home run against it all season.
Another key facet to Yamamoto’s success is his ground ball percentage generated on his pitches. He is in the 95th percentile of active pitchers, with ground balls being the result 58.4 percent of the time for opposing batters.
Yamamoto will look to continue his illustrious season, and rival arms will surely be keeping tabs on his dominance.
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Photo Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
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