Gavin Williams dominates Dodgers’ offense
Dodgers suffered a low-scoring defeat as the offens ecould not get anything going against Gavin Williams
Apr 1, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) looks on before an at bat during the third inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images A pitcher with such a glaringly high walk rate as Gavin Williams had last season and in his first start is someone who’s playing with fire—while that may eventually prove costly, one only gets to that point if they have the quality stuff to back it up, and that showed as the Guardians beat the Dodgers 4-1. The Guardians’ starting pitcher landed his four-seamer in the zone routinely enough to take full advantage of two outstanding breaking balls; his sweeper and curveball combined to induce 12 whiffs on 20 swings, and for seven innings, he imposed his will against this star-studded attack.
Apart from Andy Pages, who seemed to have his number, Dodger hitters went 0 for 18 against Williams. The Dodgers wouldn’t get an at-bat with a runner in scoring position until the sixth inning, the only frame in which they really challenged Williams. The bottom of the order put two on with no one out ahead of Shohei Ohtani.
Only there was no room for even a bit of drama, as the reigning back-to-back NL MVP hit into a rally-killing double play and was subsequently followed by a lazy flyout from Kyle Tucker. This deflating offensive display overshadowed and ultimately squandered a good performance from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Robotic-esque is the term that comes to mind when watching Yamamoto, and it makes all the sense in the world that he would start the season in that manner.
His fastball command wasn’t particularly great, only earning one called strike on the pitch, and that didn’t even stop him from delivering another ace-caliber performance. It wasn’t his fault; Williams was magnificent. Yamamoto relied heavily on his cutter to left-handers and kept the Guardians at bay for his second quality start, allowing fewer than one base runner per inning.