Yamamoto eyeing rebound in Dodger Stadium debut
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto will step into the Hollywood spotlight for the first time when he makes his Dodger Stadium debut on Saturday night at 6:10 PT against the Cardinals.
The 25-year-old right-hander will seek better results than he delivered in his MLB debut, which came in Game 2 of the Seoul Series against the Padres on March 21 in South Korea. Yamamoto got just three outs in that outing and allowed five runs on four hits and a walk with two strikeouts and one hit batsman in a 15-11 Dodgers loss.
After the game, Yamamoto said he knew what he needed to work on before his next start.
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“I wasn’t able to execute a pitch from the stretch,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonado. “I know how to fix it, and I’m going to talk to my pitching coaches Mark [Prior] and Connor [McGuiness] and fix it for my next outing.”
Los Angeles has high expectations for Yamamoto after signing him to a 12-year, $325 million contract, the richest deal for a pitcher in baseball history. The deal was part of a banner offseason for the Dodgers, who also added Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Teoscar Hernández and several others.
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Over seven seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball in his native Japan, Yamamoto posted a 1.82 ERA with 922 K’s over 897 innings. He won the Eiji Sawamura Award, an honor annually bestowed upon the best pitcher in Japan, in each of his final three NPB seasons.
Yamamoto, though, is still searching for that form with the Dodgers. He had a rocky spring, allowing nine runs on 14 hits and four walks in 9 2/3 innings, before struggling against San Diego in his first regular-season start.
All eyes will be on the righty when he takes the mound against St. Louis, with first pitch set for 6:10 p.m. PT on Saturday. The Dodgers took the first two games of the series and are 3-1 on the season.