Dodgers Manager Gets Brutally Honest on Yoshinobu Yamamoto's Struggles vs Yankees

The Los Angeles Dodgers were unable to sweep the New York Yankees on Sunday as Yoshinobu Yamamoto lasted just 3.2 innings and threw 96 pitches on the outing.

The right-hander allowed seven hits, four earned runs and three walks with just a pair of strikeouts. It was a rare performance for the National League Cy Young hopeful, but manager Dave Roberts still spoke honestly on his ace.

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“I think he just was out of sync from the get-go,” Roberts said. “It was certainly the command — it wasn’t there with any of his pitches."

Of the 96 offerings Yamamoto threw on Sunday, 46 were in the strike zone, with batters swinging and missing at eight of that total. Yamamoto has the 16th highest strikeout rate in the majors at 28.8 percent. It wasn't there on Sunday.

“He wasn’t great today. Wasn’t sharp with any of his pitches. Really uncharacteristic,” Roberts said.

On the year, Yamamoto has a 2.39 ERA across 67.2 innings pitched. He has 77 strikeouts to 23 walks, totaling a 3.35 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

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The right-hander seemed to echo the honesty from his manager as he spoke on his performance after the game.

“Since the beginning of the game, I was not able to control my pitches,” Yamamoto said. “And then during the game, I was trying to make an adjustment. I was not able to do that.”

Yamamoto also touched on the command issue as well as it appeared to impact his entire pitch mix against the Yankees.

“It was not only the splitter command, but it was also the fastball and the curveball. Overall, my command wasn’t there.” Yamamoto said.

Yamamoto has the 11th-lowest ERA in the majors and is eyeing something much bigger than just becoming the first Dodger to win the Cy Young award since Clayton Kershaw in 2014. Yamamoto said earlier this season that he is interested in becoming the first Japanese pitcher to take home the honor.

“I’ve heard no Japanese pitcher has won it yet, so I’m awfully interested in it,” Yamamoto said in April. “I think that concentrating on each and every game and performing at my best is what will lead to a wonderful award like that, so I’d like to do my best every day.”

Performances like Sunday must become distant memories for the ace to attain the honor, but he has the track record of being a legitimate contender to get there as the season soldiers on.

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