Out to finish the first portion of an all-New York homestand with a sweep, the Los Angeles Dodgers will send their top pitcher to the mound Sunday against the New York Yankees.
It remains to be seen if the Dodgers’ top offense, which powered an 18-2 victory over the Yankees on Saturday, will be in tow.
Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto is in just his second major league season but has plenty of familiarity with the Yankees, having faced them in the regular season and in the World Series in 2024.
After going seven scoreless innings in an outing last June in the Bronx, a 2-1 Dodgers victory, he started in Game 2 of the World Series at home and gave up one run in 6 1/3 innings as Los Angeles went on to a 4-2 victory and a 2-0 lead in the matchup that ended with the Dodgers winning in five games.
His success against the American League’s top team last season has been typical of Yamamoto’s short time in the major leagues. He is 6-3 with a 1.97 ERA over 11 starts this season after he went 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA in 18 starts last season.
The Cleveland Guardians were his latest victim on Monday, when he gave up two runs on three hits over six innings of a 7-2 victory.
The Dodgers rallied for an 8-5 victory in the opener of the current series on Friday, then enjoyed a laugher Saturday when Max Muncy hit two home runs to reach 201 for his career. Hyeseong Kim, Andy Pages and Dalton Rushing also hit home runs. And the blasts came with Mookie Betts out of the lineup with a broken toe, an injury that won’t put him in the injured list just yet.
“I think it was a good all-around game for us,” Muncy said. “You could say it was a statement. For us to do it without Mookie also, I think that’s huge for everyone trying to pick up the slack in the lineup. It’s just a really good day offensively all around.”
The Dodgers will see a familiar face Sunday in the battle of division leaders when left-hander Ryan Yarbrough (2-0, 3.06 ERA) takes the mound for the Yankees. Yarbrough had a 3.74 ERA in 32 appearances with the Dodgers last season but was let go well before the postseason began.
He received his World Series ring this weekend but already had said he would keep it out of the view of his new teammates, who have felt enough pain via the Dodgers in the past seven months.
Yarbrough, who has never faced the Dodgers, saw firsthand how quickly Yankees starter Will Warren got into hot water Saturday with seven runs allowed in just 1 1/3 innings. The Dodgers had a 10-0 lead at the end of two innings and finished with a season-high 21 hits.
“Every game is the same — you want to come out and you want to win,” said the Yankees’ Cody Bellinger, who was the National League MVP with the Dodgers in 2019. “Losing the first two games of any series is tough.”
Two-time American League MVP Aaron Judge hit two home runs for New York’s only runs Saturday.
The New York Mets come in to Chavez Ravine to face the Dodgers in a four-game series that starts on Monday.
–Field Level Media
