As Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has worked to establish his “trust tree” of arms this year, it became clear that no one sat higher in those branches than Yoshinobu Yamamoto. On Wednesday night, with a chance to punch a ticket to the Division Series and eliminate the Reds, Roberts put the ball in his ace’s hand — and the 26-year-old right-hander delivered once again.
Yamamoto gutted through 6 2/3 innings, escaping a perilous bases-loaded, no-out jam in the sixth before departing to a thunderous ovation, leading the Dodgers to an 8-4 win over Cincinnati in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series. With the victory, Los Angeles swept its first Wild Card set since MLB adopted the best-of-three format in 2022, advancing to face the Phillies in the NLDS starting Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.
“Two down, 11 to go,” Roberts said afterward, echoing the defending champions’ mindset.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing. After a Teoscar Hernández error in the first inning allowed two unearned runs to score, Yamamoto locked in. He proceeded to retire 13 straight batters and showed the dominance that made him the Dodgers’ $325 million investment.
Then came the sixth inning, when three straight Reds batters reached to load the bases with nobody out. The moment seemed ready to tilt Cincinnati’s way. Instead, Yamamoto authored his biggest postseason moment yet:
He induced a grounder from Austin Hays that Mookie Betts, starting at shortstop, scooped and fired home for the force.
He then struck out both Sal Stewart and Elly De La Cruz, punctuating the inning with a scream as Dodger Stadium erupted in approval.
“That was the game,” said Roberts. “You could feel it in the ballpark. That’s why we trust him with everything.”
A night after Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández powered a five-homer barrage in Game 1, the Dodgers’ lineup again provided cushion. Hernández made up for his early miscue with a two-run double in the third, while Freddie Freeman and Will Smith each chipped in RBI hits.
By the time the Dodgers turned the game over to their bullpen in the seventh, they had built enough separation. Evan Phillips and Brusdar Graterol bridged the gap to the ninth, and even though the Reds scratched across two late runs, the outcome was never in doubt.
Yamamoto threw a career-high 113 pitches, allowing just two unearned runs and striking out nine. He has now allowed one earned run or fewer in consecutive playoff starts, becoming the first Dodger to do so since Walker Buehler in 2020.
Since signing the largest pitching contract in MLB history — 12 years, $325 million — Yamamoto has only reinforced his reputation. He led the Dodgers with 173 2/3 innings this season, posted a 2.49 ERA, and was the lone constant in a six-man rotation hit by injuries.
The résumé keeps growing. Yamamoto has already won the Japan Series, the World Baseball Classic and Olympic gold. In Japan, he won the Eiji Sawamura Award (NPB’s Cy Young equivalent) and Pacific League MVP three times apiece. Now, he’s positioning himself as the face of a Dodgers rotation aiming to defend a championship.
“Doesn’t matter if it’s Japan, the Olympics, or here in October — he’s a winner,” Freeman said. “And we feed off that.”
The Dodgers will now take on a familiar October rival in the Phillies, who await them in Philadelphia. A rematch of last year’s NLCS powers looms just around the corner.
For now, though, Roberts and his club can appreciate the dominance of their starting rotation in the Wild Card round: Blake Snell in Game 1, Yamamoto in Game 2.
“We’ve got the best arms in baseball,” Roberts said. “And if we keep pitching like this, we like our chances to do something special again.”
The Dodgers took care of business at home. Next stop: Citizens Bank Park — with their title defense very much alive.
