PHOENIX — Yoshinobu Yamamoto would probably like to forget his one-inning MLB debut. If he could get MLB to agree, his ERA would be 1.64 and his WHIP 0.97 over six Seoul-less starts.
The Dodgers scored five times in the second inning and coasted to an 8-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks with Yamamoto turning in his second consecutive scoreless start.
As The Bee Guy’s 15 minutes of fame wound down, the Dodgers won their third series on the three-city, two-country, 5,425-mile cavalcade.
“Everybody just expects us to dominate, dominate, dominate,” Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes said of the swing from a 3-6 homestand to a 7-2 road trip. “Baseball’s hard. It’s a tough game. I feel like we came on the road and played some good baseball together and hopefully we’ll just keep carrying on.”
The Dodgers did come pretty close to “dominate, dominate, dominate” on this trip. They outscored their three opponents (the Washington Nationals, Toronto Blue Jays and Diamondbacks) 45-19 and trailed at the end of a total of just 15 of the 82 innings played.
“You look back 11 days ago and we were in a tough spot, weren’t playing good baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “To go on the road, East Coast trip, to go north of the border and then come back here and play a division rival and end up 7-2, it was a nice feat, a lot of good baseball.
“Offensively, I thought outside of last night (a 4-3 loss in extra innings) we were really good the entire road trip and then the pitching, the defense, has been the best we’ve had all year.”
Yamamoto neutralized the Diamondbacks as effectively as The Bee Guy’s “non-pesticidal solution” knocked out Tuesday’s bee swarm. The Japanese right-hander allowed five hits and walked two in six scoreless innings and now has a 15-inning scoreless streak.
The Diamondbacks only got two baserunners to second base against Yamamoto – one in the first inning then later in the sixth. Both were stranded there.
“I think I’m being able to keep myself very calm. That’s one of the biggest reasons I’m being able to execute,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter.
“There are some differences between here and Japan, such as the PitchCom, pitch clock. I think I’m being able to get myself used to it. And I’m feeling more comfortable. … I think I’m just getting used to the environment since I came here.”
Roberts said he has seen Yamamoto’s confidence grow with each start since the debacle in Korea.
“He’s continuing to build confidence. With the confidence he’s finishing all his throws,” Roberts said. “The fastball has the life. It’s in the zone. It’s commanded. The curveball played really well tonight, as did the split.”
Barnes has caught three of Yamamoto’s starts since Korea. He hasn’t allowed a run over 17 innings in those starts.
“I thought he pitched really well,” Barnes said. “I thought with a six-run lead he attacked hitters. I thought he was pretty efficient early on, taking his outs, not trying to chase punch (strikeouts).
“I think after every start he probably gets more confidence. He’s only 25 years old and it’s a new league for him. He’s been throwing the ball really well so it’s hard to say he doesn’t have his feet under him. He was great today.”
Diamondbacks left-hander Jordan Montgomery was scheduled to start Tuesday’s bee game and went through his pregame routine only to be scratched when the start was delayed almost two hours.
He might have been wishing for locusts if he’d known how it was going to go Wednesday.
The Dodgers scored five times on four hits and two walks in the second inning against Montgomery.
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Andy Pages’ two-run home run started the scoring. Austin Barnes doubled in another run when his fly ball glanced off center fielder Corbin Carroll’s glove and dropped to the warning track. Mookie Betts drove in two more runs with the first of his three singles in the game.
The MLB leader in hits (49), Betts has had 12 multi-hit games in the first 33 games of the season, five of three hits or more.
Will Smith led off the third with a solo home run and Montgomery’s night was just about over. The Dodgers added two more runs in a four-walk seventh inning against Diamondbacks relievers Blake Walston (making his MLB debut) and Brandon Hughes. Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor had back-to-back bases-loaded walks.
The bottom half of the Dodgers’ lineup started to contribute offensively on this trip, sparked by Pages. In Wednesday’s win, the final four hitters – Pages, Rojas, Taylor and Barnes – combined for five hits and three walks, scored four of the Dodgers’ runs and drove in five.
“Andy’s a big part of that,” Roberts said of the bottom half of the lineup gaining punch. “Certainly once he got called up, the bottom part of the order solidified and became more productive. I like to think that — you look at these 10 games, these nine games, and the production that the bottom half has given us, that that narrative should be silenced a little bit.”