Dodgers ensure they don’t waste Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s brilliant night as they snap skid

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LOS ANGELES – Yoshinobu Yamamoto made history before even throwing a single pitch in Major League Baseball with the sport’s richest contract ever for a pitcher, and has spent the months since charting a path towards nights like Tuesday night, where he put a team’s hopes on his back. On a night where he shouldered the burden of stopping the Dodgers’ slide, Yamamoto produced the kind of performance that the Dodgers shelled out $325 million for.

The Dodgers pitching has been in shambles. They needed Yamamoto to be great. He was on Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, delivering the kind of performance needed to stop a slide that has mucked up their May.

Which made it all the more important to not waste Yamamoto’s yeoman’s work. The Dodgers very nearly did. They scored just one run when he was on the mound, blowing that lead in the ninth inning and falling behind in extras when $72 million closer Tanner Scott surrendered just the third multi-homer game of his career. A fifth consecutive loss would have stung. In a stretch where their pitching hadn’t allowed them breathing room, they were in danger of dropping their ace’s masterpiece.

Instead, the Dodgers overcame a two-run deficit in the 10th inning, rallying all the way back to win, 4-3, on Max Muncy’s walk-off sacrifice fly.

End it, Max! pic.twitter.com/pPovjtBXS0

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 21, 2025

Nights like these from Yamamoto are precious. Now, the Dodgers can exhale.

“You just can’t lose on nights that Yamamoto throws,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Those ones really sting. So yeah, to get a win tonight, I’m gonna sleep a lot better tonight.”

“A win like this is great,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda.

For the second time in a month, it took until the middle innings for Yamamoto to allow his first hit, with Ketel Marte leading off the seventh with a double off the wall. Over the course of seven scoreless innings on a MLB career-high 110 pitches, Yamamoto looked the part of what Roberts has repeatedly called him: an ace.

His starts are events, and for a rotation worn thin by injuries, a rare chance to exhale. The organization has spent a combined $325 million on the likes of Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki each of the last two winters. All three are currently hurt. But it is Yamamoto, who signed for that same total over a 12-year pact and set a new benchmark, who is looking like the best overall investment of the bunch.

The Japanese right-hander may be slight, but his impact has been massive. It took until Marte drew a one-out walk in the fourth inning for Arizona to put on a single baserunner off of Yamamoto, whose arsenal was in fine form. He could put his fastball just about anywhere he wanted it. His curveball and splitter helped him change speeds. A potent Diamondbacks lineup had little answer.

Considering the state of the Dodgers’ pitching staff, it was a godsend. When Yamamoto retired the side in order to start the game, it marked the first time since last Wednesday that the Dodgers had the luxury of not trailing before taking a single at-bat — and Yamamoto started that game, too. Yamamoto on Tuesday made just the 12th outing by a Dodgers pitcher this season that lasted just six innings. Their bullpen has thrown more innings than any team in baseball. Pitching has not gone well for the Dodgers, who had lost four consecutive games at home for the first time since 2018 and allowed 32 earned runs in the process.

Enter Yamamoto, who continued to deliver.

“What I’ve learned from him over the last year, the last year and a half,” Roberts said. “I just see a guy that works, you know, very intentional. He’s really confident in his ability. I think that the success that he’s had has given him more conviction to execute pitches, to get ahead… That takes time to build that trust.”

YOSHINOBU YAMAMOTO. pic.twitter.com/GkwqjAWFko

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 21, 2025

Things are still in a precarious place for the Dodgers. Their vaunted bullpen is without its four highest-leverage right-handed relievers (Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech), which makes decisions difficult. Asked directly this week who his top right-handed reliever was, Roberts said that’s still to be figured out. The eighth inning Tuesday provided an answer. Alex Vesia walked a tightrope after putting runners on the corners before recording an out. But with two outs, Roberts put Marte on intentionally and brought on Ben Casparius to face the right-handed hitting Lourdes Gurriel Jr. with the bases loaded of a 1-0 game.

This time last year, Roberts had no idea who Casparius, a starter freshly called up to Triple-A Oklahoma City, was. Until this spring he’d never really worked in relief. The Dodgers have toyed with the idea of stretching him back out to start given their pitching woes. Now, he’s a leverage option, one who got the Dodgers out of the threat in the eighth. That should have been enough.

Scott wanted a fastball up and in to Gabriel Moreno. Instead, it wasn’t quite in enough as Moreno pulled a high fly ball that landed five rows deep into the left field seats to tie it. The closer said he was looking to go up and in to crowd Corbin Carroll an inning later, but the pitch drifted out towards the outer half instead. The left-handed hitting Carroll went with it and laced a two-run shot to give Arizona a late lead.

The Dodgers had effectively run out of pitching. Their offense had done little.

This, Roberts said, was “dire.”

Until it wasn’t.

Tommy Edman, who didn’t start the game as he works his way back from the injured list, lifted a double to left to lead off the inning against Arizona reliever Shelby Miller. Rather than allow Miller to face Shohei Ohtani, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo intentionally walked the eventual winning run. Rather than look to slug, Mookie Betts lifted a fly ball deep enough to advance Edman to third. When Ohtani swiped second to avoid the force out, Lovullo walked Freeman, too.

With the bases loaded, Miller’s breaking ball backed up and nicked Smith on the elbow guard to tie the game and set up Muncy’s eventual sacrifice fly just deep enough to center field to score Ohtani.

“Nice of Will to stand there and wear one,” Muncy said.

What came with Tuesday felt like relief. The Dodgers have lost five games in a row just one time in the last half decade — a stretch last May that, like this one, came on the heels of some woeful pitching. That kind of stretch can feel like an eternity. Instead, they had something to celebrate.

“We got punched in the mouth, and for us to punch right back, I think that was really big out of the group, out of the guys,” Muncy said.

“We just kept fighting,” Smith said,

In doing so, they managed to not squander a night from their new ace.

“I don’t know if it was a must-win, but certainly given Yoshi’s outing, I think you could almost — you don’t wanna waste that great of an outing,” Roberts said.

(Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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