Yoshinobu Yamamoto needed 102 pitches to dispose of the New York Yankees on Sunday afternoon. Every one of them felt like a tax on the home dugout.
Yamamoto threw his first regular-season complete game as a Dodger, allowing four hits and two runs with seven strikeouts and no walks in an 8-2 laugher at Yankee Stadium — the opener of a split doubleheader that let Los Angeles rest its entire bullpen for the nightcap.
The line tells you most of what you need. But the efficiency is where this gets interesting for anyone who keeps a scorecard. Yamamoto retired 21 of 23 batters through seven innings, needing just 68 pitches to get there. He threw eight pitches in the second inning and nine in the third. That kind of pace doesn’t just deflate a lineup — it drags the opposing starter’s rest between innings down to nothing, and the Dodgers exploited every second of it.
Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler entered the day carrying a 2.05 ERA, arguably the best or second-best mark in the American League. The Dodgers forced him to throw 98 pitches across 4 1/3 innings — matching his shortest start of the season. They fouled off pitch after pitch in the second inning alone, jacking his count past 40 before he’d recorded six outs. A sun-aided double by Max Muncy — the ball fell between right fielder Max Schuemann and second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., neither of whom could track it — only compounded the grind.
Schlittler struck out the side in the first, blowing away Shohei Ohtani, Andy Pages, and Freddie Freeman with six swings and misses. It was a mirage. The Dodgers saw 50 pitches their first time through the order. In the third, Ohtani ripped an RBI double into the right-center gap at 111 mph off the bat, scoring Tommy Edman from first. Freeman followed with a two-strike flare into left-center to plate Ohtani for a 2-0 lead.
Trent Grisham got the Yankees on the board with a solo homer into the second deck in right in the fourth — New York’s first hit. That was the extent of the resistance until Ben Rice led off the seventh with a double. Three straight Yankees came up as the potential tying run. All three were retired, the last on a Schuemann line drive that shot straight to Pages in center on the payoff pitch.
The Dodgers put it away with five runs in the eighth off relievers Jake Bird and Camilo Doval. Teoscar Hernández started the damage with a ground-rule double. Edman worked a full count and slapped a two-run single through the right side. Ohtani added an RBI single. Freeman’s sac fly made it 8-1.
Edman, since returning from the injured list, is now hitting .351/.429/.486 with a 157 wRC+ across 24 games. That is not a typo — he has been one of the best hitters in baseball for a month, and the Dodgers’ lineup depth just keeps absorbing his production.
Yamamoto gave back a run in the eighth when another fly ball was lost in the sun, but he closed the ninth in order to seal it. Sunday was the eighth time this season he has lasted at least seven innings, and the third time he has completed eight. He leads the majors in innings per start at 6.65. The complete game was the logical endpoint.
The Yankees, who managed four hits and drew zero walks, will get another crack in the nightcap. The Dodgers, meanwhile, will hand the ball to their bullpen with every reliever fully rested — a luxury Yamamoto’s 102 pitches bought them.
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