ATLANTA — No one show him a calendar.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was voted the National League’s Pitcher of the Month for the first month of the season, during which he led the majors with a 1.06 ERA. Yamamoto didn’t acknowledge the passage of time on Friday, pitching like the National League’s best against the Atlanta Braves.
Yamamoto took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and allowed just one hit in six scoreless innings as the Dodgers beat the Braves, 2-1, in the opener of a weekend series at Truist Park, extending their winning streak to six games.
“He’s turning himself into a staff ace,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And when you look at the handful of guys in the big leagues, that when they take the ball, that you know they’re going to go six innings, you’re going to get a chance to win, a good chance to win, they can manage some stress, they’re always the best option – he’s putting himself in that category.”
It’s a regression for Yamamoto, back to the ace he was for years in Japan.
“Yes, I’ve been able to perform at a very high level,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter of his start to this season. “I think it’s really close to my best times in Japan.”
Through 5⅔ innings, Yamamoto walked Braves DH Marcell Ozuna twice but didn’t even allow a ball to be hit out of the infield until the fourth inning. Austin Riley finally broke up his no-hit bid with a line drive into right-center field with two outs in the sixth, hustling it into a double.
“Right now, he’s pitching like the best pitcher in the world,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said.
Roberts acknowledged that he started to think about the no-hitter in the sixth inning and might have let Yamamoto pitch into the seventh inning if it was still intact.
“I was for a quick minute. And Riley changed that,” Roberts said. “So I think he felt my brain thinking about the no-hitter.
“I was thinking about it a little bit because, yeah, he had no-hit stuff tonight.”
Yamamoto came out after just 91 pitches in those six innings because, Roberts admitted, “there is a very good possibility” Yamamoto’s next start will be on five days’ rest not the six (or more) the Dodgers have been giving him this season. That would put him on the mound again Thursday in Arizona.
“He dominated today,” Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips said. “And I feel like it wasn’t even the best version of Yama. Which is crazy. The guy, when you talk about routine and work ethic and the talent, this guy’s one of the best in the game, for sure. It’s fun to watch.”
Yamamoto struck out six and was really in danger only twice – real danger.
Matt Olson lined a ball back through the box at 107.7 mph in the first inning, ruffling Yamamoto’s hair on the way past. Mookie Betts caught it for the final out of the inning. In the second inning, the first batter, Braves catcher Sean Murphy, sent one back at Yamamoto even more on target at 106.4 mph and the Japanese right-hander had to catch it out of self-preservation.
Yamamoto’s splitter continues to emerge as an elite pitch for him. He threw 27 Friday. The Braves swung at 17, missed seven and didn’t put any of them in play at more than 81 mph.
“I think today, the split was fantastic,” Roberts said. “The command was back to being who he is. I think the last one (against the Pittsburgh Pirates), he just wasn’t as sharp. But today, he got back the command, and the split really plays.”
Matched up with Jacob deGrom and Paul Skenes in his previous two starts, Yamamoto was dueling with a less-accomplished right-hander Friday – Braves starter Grant Holmes.
The Dodgers’ first-round draft pick in 2014, Holmes was shipped to Oakland in the Rich Hill-Josh Reddick trade two years later but was released by the A’s in July 2022. He surfaced with the Braves last year and was clinging to a rotation spot with a 4.50 ERA before Friday night.
But he looked dominant in the early innings, retiring the first 10 Dodgers in order, six on strikeouts (on his way to a career-high nine in six innings).
Betts broke the perfect string when he a 94.4 mph line drive back at Holmes in the fourth inning. The ball caromed off the back of Holmes’ leg for a hit. Freddie Freeman beat out another infield single and Teoscar Hernandez walked to load the bases. Smith drove in the first run of the night with a sacrifice fly.
Betts doubled the score anyway with a solo home run in the sixth inning. It was his seventh RBI in the past three games and eighth hit in his past 21 at-bats.
Yamamoto left after six innings and 91 pitches, his MLB-leading ERA now down to 0.90. Kirby Yates replaced him and Olson drove his third pitch over the wall in straightaway center field, making it a one-run game again.
Tanner Scott and Phillips made that stand up with one scoreless inning apiece, split by a 73-minute rain delay between the eighth and ninth innings.
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