Yoshinobu Yamamoto (27) took the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants on May 12 (local time) at Dodger Stadium, but struggled with command. The right-hander allowed a career-worst three home runs and six hits over 6⅓ innings, surrendering five earned runs—also a season high—to drop to 3-3 with a 3.60 ERA. Despite striking out eight batters (tying his season best), the damage proved costly.
Yamamoto started strong, retiring the first six batters in order through two innings. The Dodgers’ offense gave him an early lead in the first, as Shohei Ohtani (31) singled and later scored on Will Smith’s sacrifice fly. In the third, Yamamoto quickly recorded two strikeouts but then allowed a solo home run to No. 9 hitter Brett Wisely, tying the game 1-1.
The Dodgers answered immediately in the bottom of the third, with Ohtani crushing his first home run in 12 games and 53 plate appearances—a solo shot to left-center for his seventh of the season. Yamamoto flashed a smile from the dugout, clearly relieved. “Today’s homer really energized the team, and I think it was great for everyone,” Yamamoto said of Ohtani’s blast.
With a 2-1 lead, Yamamoto took the mound again but couldn’t hold it. In the fifth, with two outs, No. 8 hitter Matt Beaty tied the game with a solo home run down the left-field line. Then Wisely followed with his second homer of the game, a solo shot to give the Giants a 3-2 lead. “I wanted to keep the lead and hand it off to the next inning, then the next inning, but I couldn’t,” Yamamoto lamented. The three home runs allowed in a single game matched his career worst.
Yamamoto worked a 1-2-3 sixth, but in the seventh, with the Dodgers trailing 3-2, he allowed back-to-back singles to lead off. After inducing a lineout to second base, he was pulled with one out and runners on first and third. Reliever Blake Treinen allowed both inherited runners to score, adding two more earned runs to Yamamoto’s line—bringing his total to five, a season worst.
