The Los Angeles Dodgers will start with Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 5 of the NLDS.
The team announced the right-hander as the starter for their winner-take-all game against the San Diego Padres on Thursday. There had been some mystery surrounding their selection, but Yamamoto was the most likely choice.
Yu Darvish had already been announced as the Padres’ starter for Game 5. It will be two Japanese starters going head-to-head in a game that already featured Shohei Ohtani.
Yamamoto has made three starts against the Padres so far in his MLB rookie season, and none of them have gone particularly well. He was bowled over in his MLB debut in Korea on March 21, allowing four hits and five runs in one inning. He followed that up with three earned runs in five innings on April 12.
In Game 1 of the NLDS, he allowed five earned runs and five hits in three innings, which did not stop the Dodgers from recording a 7-5 victory at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers then dropped the next two games before shutting out the Padres 8-0 on Wednesday to force a Game 5.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after Game 1 that he believed Yamamoto may have tipped his pitches, via MLB.com:
“There’s some things I think we’re going to dig deeper into because I think at second base they had some things with his glove [that were] giving away some pitches,” Roberts said. “We’re going to clean that up. That’s part of baseball. So it’s up to us to clean that up and not reveal which pitch he’s going to throw.”
Yamamoto is in his first season with the Dodgers after signing an MLB pitcher-record 12-year deal worth $325 million last winter.
It probably won’t just be Yamamoto against the Padres, knowing the Dodgers. The team also has Game 2 starter Jack Flaherty waiting in the wings. He was seen doing drills in the team’s bullpen in Game 4 and seemed like an option to pitch in relief, but he could instead act as a backup in case Yamamoto’s start just as quickly went to the south goes as in the past.
The team also isn’t shy about leaning on the bullpen, which pitched a shutout in Game 4 and was given a full day of rest on Thursday. Few teams care as little about conventional postseason pitching plans as the Dodgers.
Whoever wins Friday at Dodger Stadium will face the New York Mets in the NLCS, with Game 1 scheduled for Sunday.
