Yamamoto vs. Darvish Game 5 matchup a postseason first for Japan
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LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers wanted to keep their pitching options open heading into Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the Padres on Friday night. They made their choice late Thursday night.
With their season on the line at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles will start right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. With the Padres calling on Yu Darvish, the winner-take-all Game 5 will have the additional distinction of being the first MLB postseason matchup between two Japanese-born starting pitchers.
"I think if you look at Yoshinobu, he's on his regular rest," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in explaining his decision to make Yamamoto his Game 5 starter. "Jack [Flaherty], it would be a regular rest for him, which is shorter still. We don't have the same as far as bullpen availability as we did, as far as up-downs and all that stuff. So I think that realizing that Yoshinobu is here to be a top-end starter, and this is his time. I feel that we have really viable candidates behind him. But I certainly believe -- we all feel good about the decision for him to start."
“I think it's a great thing that we're able to go at it with each other in Game 5 of an NLDS,” Darvish said, via interpreter Shingo Horie, hours before the matchup became official. “At a personal level, really good friends with him, as well. And just for us to be able to go out there and pitch on the same day, a playoff game, I think it means a lot.”
This is exactly the type of game the Dodgers had in mind when they made a 12-year, $325 million commitment to Yamamoto this past winter, making the right-hander the highest-paid pitcher in Major League history.
Yamamoto won three Eiji Sawamura Awards, the equivalent of the Cy Young Award in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. In his rookie season in the Majors, Yamamoto went 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA in 18 starts. Although he missed a couple of months with a right shoulder injury, Yamamoto had a successful rookie season.
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Yamamoto, who will be just the fifth rookie to start a winner-take-all game in Dodgers franchise history, joining Dustin May, Walker Buehler, Fernando Valenzuela and Joe Black.
The one team Yamamoto has struggled against, however, is San Diego. Yamamoto’s first start in the Majors came against the Padres in Seoul, South Korea, and the Padres responded by scoring five runs in one inning against him. In his second start against the Padres, Yamamoto allowed three runs over five innings.
Yamamoto’s NLDS Game 1 start against the Padres was also not impressive. He allowed five runs over three innings and wasn’t fooling any of the Padres’ hitters.
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The Dodgers thought Yamamoto might be tipping his pitches after his subpar start in Game 1. In the days since, Roberts said, the 26-year-old has "cleaned stuff up" and focused on managing some revelatory tendencies.
The 13.00 ERA Yamamoto has compiled in nine innings against the Padres is easily his highest vs. any team.
Because of Yamamoto’s struggles against the Padres, the Dodgers contemplated deploying a bullpen game on Friday. The Dodgers used eight relievers to stave off elimination in Game 4 on Wednesday. Running the same playbook was always going to be risky for the Dodgers, and taxing for the relievers. Right-hander Jack Flaherty was also under consideration, but if the Dodgers were going to use a traditional starter, it was always going to be the one they invested a lot of money to this winter.
“The Korea start is even hard to really talk about,” Roberts said. “I guess I think over the course, it’s just lack of command. When he hasn’t commanded the baseball, he hasn’t been really that good. But when he’s convicted and ripping it and attacking hitters with his pitch mix, he’s as good as anyone.”
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In Game 5, the Dodgers need Yamamoto to be as good as Darvish. Whoever prevails, the pitchers will know they made baseball history.
"It gives me a lot of joy, obviously," Darvish said of the influx of Japanese talent in MLB. "I think the level of baseball in Japan has risen, and it's actually showing over here. So it's really good to see all these players that come over here be successful."
MLB.com reporter/producer Sonja Chen contributed to this report.