Dave Roberts Encouraged by Yamamoto Start Despite Loss

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts saw plenty of good in Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s start Monday despite LA’s 1-0 loss to the San Diego Padres . Yamamoto allowed the sole run of the game in the first inning, when Miguel Andujar crushed a splitter over the left-center field fence. He threw 6.

1 scoreless innings afterwards, though, which is a good sign following a difficult stretch of starts against him. Prior to Monday, Yamamoto allowed three or more runs in each of his previous four starts —something he had never done in MLB before. “The last few haven’t been great, per his standards,” Roberts said , referring to Yamamoto’s last few starts.

“But tonight, I thought, was a really good one. The win-loss, you’ve got to score runs for him, too. It was good to see him get back after that kind of shaky first inning tonight and pitch the way he did.

” “…It was just one of those things. It was a pitchers’ duel. [Yamamoto] made one mistake to the second hitter, [he] hits a homer and that’s all they could muster up.