NEW YORK – That three-game sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks before the All-Star break is a distant memory now – like home cooking, the family pet’s name and which day to put the recycling out by the curb.
Life on the road has been good to the Dodgers. They handled the New York Mets with some difficulty Saturday night, winning 4-3 behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto and another Kyle Tucker home run.
It was their sixth win in eight games on this serpentine 10-day, post-All-Star break trip that doubled back on itself, returning them to New York for a second weekend.
“It’s nice,” Tucker said of the post-break momentum. “I know it’s been a long road trip – especially for the guys who went to Philly for the All-Star Game. They’ve kind of been gone for two weeks-plus probably. So it’s been a long road trip, especially for them. Being able to come out of the break and play some really good teams and put together really competitive at-bats and great innings from our pitching staff is huge.
“Some of the guys are kind of grinding in terms of how long they’ve been away from LA. It’s kind of part of it. You’ve got to come out and play regardless and they’ve done a great job of that.”
The road has been kind to the Dodgers all season. Their best record in baseball includes a best-in-baseball 36-19 record on the road.
“It seems like we’ve been on the road a long time, but the travel has been nice as far as staying in this time zone,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the East Coast residency. “We’re finding ways to win. So that’s the main thing. That’s the object of the game.”
Yamamoto wasn’t at his best Saturday – but he didn’t have to be against a depleted Mets’ lineup that even lost Juan Soto to the injured list with a calf injury suffered in Friday’s game.
Yamamoto gave up back-to-back two-out singles in the first inning – the second when he hit Carson Benge in the back with a throw – then stranded them both by striking out Luis Robert Jr. In the third, he worked around a pair of walks to strand two more.
In the fifth, the Mets got to him for a run on three hits before he stranded two more on base. All that traffic produced only one run because Yamamoto held the Mets to 1 for 7 hitting with runners in scoring position during his six innings.
“Yamamoto was good, not great,” Roberts said. “I think that he made pitches when he needed to, as he always does. But there were some bad walks in there. He wasn’t as efficient as he has been. But again, he’s just such a good competitor. And like I said, I think that the tell was that he made pitches when he needed to. But the fastball command, the split, just wasn’t where it has been in the last six weeks.”
Yamamoto was outstanding in his first start after the break, pitching a complete game against the Yankees last Sunday. But this time around he said he didn’t have a “good feel” from his pre-game bullpen.
“In the season, I have this kind of an outing,” he said through his interpreter. “So, to battle that, I was trying to use what I have.”
The Mets (sporting the most expensive bad record in baseball) were no more capable on defense than offense.
Tucker led off the third inning with his second home run in as many at-bats (he hit one in the eighth inning Friday night) after going 80 plate appearances without one. It was his first time this season hitting home runs in back-to-back games.
“I mean, I would like to do it more often but it kind of is what it is,” Tucker said of his season-long search for consistent production. “Just trying to put together better at-bats, barrel up the ball and wherever it goes it goes. Once it leaves the bat, there’s not much you can do about it. So just try to put a good swing on it and just kind of go from there.”
The Dodgers scored two more times in the inning after Mets first baseman Brett Baty fielded Shohei Ohtani’s ground ball and went to second for a forceout, clipping baserunner Dalton Rushing with his throw. That led to one unearned run. A passed ball let another score.
The Dodgers added another run in the fifth inning when right fielder Carson Benge came up short on a diving attempt to catch Teoscar Hernandez’s soft pop up, turning it into a double. Andy Pages drove him in with a single.
Yamamoto’s high-traffic outing pushed his pitch count to 100 in six innings but he left with a 4-1 lead. Alex Vesia passed that on to Edgardo Henriquez who immediately put it in peril by hitting a batter and walking the next.
Henriquez struck out the next two batters, making nine pitches from 100.5 to 101.8 mph (only five strikes). Tanner Scott replaced him and gave up a two-run double to pinch-hitter Tyrone Taylor, making it a one-run game before he struck out A.J. Ewing to end the inning.
Brock Stewart handled the ninth inning for his first save as a Dodger since June 2017 (his first go-round with the team), when he pitched the last three innings in a 12-0 win over the Mets.