Los Angeles Dodgers Opening Day starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a strong showing in his season debut against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Yamamoto threw six innings, reaching 95 pitches—a few more than of the limit manager Dave Roberts set for him prior to the game—and striking out six batters. He left the game with a 4-2 lead, and is primed to earn his first win of the season should the Dodgers win the first game of the year.
His fastball touched 97.4 mph in the outing, nearly 2 mph faster than his average from last year. He also generated 16 whiffs during the outing, seven more than opposing starter Zac Gallen.
The right-hander fell behind in the fourth inning when D-Backs shortstop Geraldo Perdomo hit a two-run homer to right field, but the Dodgers put together a four-run fifth inning on the back of a three-run shot from Andy Pages to take the lead.
Yamamoto is in the hunt for his first Cy Young award in 2026, and he is off to a great start with his solid outing against the Diamondbacks.
Who Will Start for the Dodgers for the Rest of the Series?
The Diamondbacks definitely got the strongest starter out of the way after Yamamoto pitched Thursday, but it doesn’t get much easier for them throughout the remainder of the series.
Emmet Sheehan will start for the Dodgers in the second game of the series following the Dodgers’ ring ceremony, and Tyler Glasnow will start the final game of the set on Saturday.
The Dodgers will play against the Cleveland Guardians in their next series, and Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani will start the first two games of that matchup.
The front office has put together an extraordinarily strong pitching staff over the past few seasons, and seem to be content with the work they’ve done.
“I think we are breaking camp with the most talented group of pitchers one through 20 that we have ever had,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “Obviously, last September-October we got real exposure to how talented our starting staff was and how they kind of keyed off one another. We’re looking forward to them going out and being a huge part of our success this year.”
How did you feel about Yamamoto’s outing?
