The Los Angeles Dodgers did not get the start they would have liked out of Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 1 of the NLDS against the San Diego Padres. Nonetheless, they were able to squeeze out a win.
Yamamoto pitched just three innings, giving up five hits, five earned runs, and two walks. He struck out one batter. It was not a great MLB postseason debut for Yamamoto. His teammate, Shohei Ohtani, theorized part of the struggle is that it's hard to get loose for the first game of a playoff series.
In a postgame press conference, Dave Roberts said, "I thought there were some misses, I just felt that there was stress. I just thought that they were seeing him well," when asked why he subbed him out after three innings. He also admitted that he thought Yamamoto was tipping pitches to base runners at second base.
"There are some things that I think that we're going to dig into because I think at second base they had some things with his glove and giving away some pitches. So we're going to clean that up, and that's part of baseball, so it's on us to kind of clean that up and not give away what pitch he's going to throw."
With a runner occupying second base, Yamamoto gave up a home run, a double, and a walk in Game 1.
Roberts has not lost confidence in Yamamoto, though, saying, "he'll probably start," when asked if he would be the go-to guy for a possible Game 5 against the Padres.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Dave Roberts Admits Yoshinobu Yamamoto Was Tipping Pitches vs. Padres.
