Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw the first complete game of his major-league career on Sunday, holding the New York Yankees to two runs on four hits as the Los Angeles Dodgers won the opener of a split doubleheader 8-2 at Yankee Stadium.
Yamamoto needed just 102 pitches to get through nine innings, striking out seven without issuing a walk and facing only 30 batters. Trent Grisham‘s solo home run in the fourth and Anthony Volpe‘s run-scoring single in the eighth were the only blemishes. Per MLB.com, it was his first regular-season complete game after he went the distance in consecutive starts last postseason, and the first by a Dodgers pitcher against the Yankees since Jerry Reuss in Game 5 of the 1981 World Series. Yamamoto improved to 10-6 and lowered his ERA to 2.78.
The offense gave him room to work. Tommy Edman scored three times from the ninth spot and drove in two with a single during a five-run eighth that broke the game open against reliever Jake Bird. Shohei Ohtani went 2-for-5 with an RBI double and an RBI single, and Freddie Freeman drove in two on a single and a sacrifice fly. Yankees rookie Cam Schlittler struck out eight Dodgers in 4.1 innings but was tagged for three runs.
The nightcap went the other way. Los Angeles managed one run on Edman’s solo homer in a 2-1 loss, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. answering off Evan Phillips in the eighth to decide it. The split leaves the Dodgers at 63-37, still holding the National League’s best record.
The October question with this rotation has always been length, and nine innings on 102 pitches is the most convincing answer Yamamoto has given yet. A starter who can save a bullpen in mid-July is a starter who can shorten a series in mid-October.
For fantasy managers, Yamamoto is a locked-in ace with a 2.78 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 119.2 innings, and the efficiency here — 102 pitches over nine — is the kind of outing that keeps his workload sustainable into September. Edman, meanwhile, homered in the nightcap after scoring three runs in the opener and remains a sneaky multi-position source of runs at the bottom of a deep lineup.
