Although there has been no official word from the team (yet), it appeared from his very first pitch on Thursday evening that something wasn’t quite right with 26-year-old Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who the Dodgers signed to an enormous international free agent contract back on December 27, 2023 to the tune of 12 years at $325 million that included a $50 million signing bonus.

“I don’t think he was as sharp as he has been,” is how Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described the Bizen, Japan native’s eighth start of the season following his team’s 5-3 loss to the last-place division-rival Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on Thursday.

Yamamoto finished his 5.0-inning start having struck out only four D-basks hitters while walking one, doing so on 88 total pitches of which 54 were strikes (61.36%). Unfortunately, one of those pitches was a 92-mph fastball right down Broadway that D-backs catcher Gabriel Moreno absolutely crushed for a devastating 377-foot fourth-inning grand slam home run. It was Moreno’s first home run of the season and the third allowed by Yamamoto this season.

“Those are great, great hitters, I tip my hat to them,” is what Yamamoto told reporters postgame through an interpreter.

On the less negative side, although Yamamoto is (now) 4-3 on the (now) six-week-old 2025 season, he still owns an excellent 1.80 ERA, so there’s that.

Thursday’s loss by the 25-13 (still) NL West first-place Dodgers over the 20-18 (still) NL West fourth-place Diamondbacks brings to mind the ages-old baseball saying:

“Good pitching beats good hitting every time.”

It also brings to mind the other ages-old baseball saying:

“It’s still early”

…at least until it ain’t.

Play Ball!

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