MLB – The quiet after the storm of that very first pitch: Yamamoto puts on a masterclass

Yamamoto leaves the Mets sick as a dog, Dodgers scrape it out

New York landed the first punch, but it was Yoshinobu Yamamoto who had the final say. On Tuesday night, after a nerve-shredding pitchers’ duel with Nolan McLean, the Dodgers finally broke the Mets at home, 2-1. It was a pressure-cooker of a game, and it was settled in the eighth when Kyle Tucker poked home the go-ahead run with an RBI single, before lefty reliever Alex Vesia slammed the door in the final inning. Closer Edwin Díaz was resting after a workout session.

A homer to start, then the shutout treatment

Francisco Lindor had the place silenced before most fans had even settled in. The Mets man punished a small mistake from the Japanese ace, sending a fastball right down the middle into the right-field seats. But instead of spiralling, Yamamoto flipped the switch. From that point on, the Dodgers ace retired 20 straight batters. Bo Bichette was the one who finally snapped the madness in the seventh with a double.

A splitter from another planet

Yamamoto wrapped up his masterclass with 104 pitches, going 7 and two-thirds innings, allowing just one run and striking out seven. His weapon of the night? A filthy splitter that generated 12 of his 23 swings and misses, tying a career high. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was almost left praising the damage: “With the way he throws his fastball, that pitch is nasty. It comes out looking like a heater, then all of a sudden it just falls off a cliff.”

Right at the top table

After Justin Wrobleski’s showing the night before, Yamamoto picked up the baton in style, giving Shohei Ohtani a pile of useful information before he takes the mound on Wednesday for the series finale. For Dave Roberts, there’s no argument left: his Japanese pitcher, the MVP of the last World Series, belongs in the same conversation as the monsters Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal for the title of baseball’s best arm. “Skenes and Skubal are throwing missiles, that’s obvious. But our guy has shown he turns up when it matters most in October. He’s absolutely in that conversation,” the L.A. boss said.

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