Yoshinobu Yamamotos lead-up to Dodgers opening | College News
PHOENIX — The first pitch of the Dodgers’ 2026 season gained’t seize the exuberance of the last pitch of 2025. But will probably be significant in its own proper, as the official first step of the crew’s quest for a third straight championship.
How poetic that the same arm ought to ship both pitches.
“It’s an honor for me,” Dodgers opening day starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto said Tuesday through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “And then it’s opening day at a Dodger Stadium home game, and that’s very [much an] honor to me. I also feel the responsibility.”
Yamamoto is scheduled to make one more Cactus League start, against the Padres on Friday, before taking the Dodger Stadium mound next Thursday when the Diamondbacks come to city. It would be the second opening-day start of Yamamoto’s MLB profession, and his first at home.
It will also mark the end of a whirlwind offseason and spring training for Yamamoto, who not only shouldered a demanding postseason workload, but also navigated an particularly fast turnaround to pitch for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic.
“It’s hard to put into words,” supervisor Dave Roberts said. “He is just very driven, he’s very disciplined in his work. That’s some of the things that allows him to compete at a high level. Where most people would feel that you win the World Series MVP, you don’t have enough to pitch in the WBC. He wanted to pitch for his country, and now he’s really excited about the start of 2026.
“He is a very determined person. He really is. We’re just lucky he’s on our team.”
No one wants to be reminded that Yamamoto was a playoff hero last yr, but let’s actually break down his efforts.
On Oct. 14, Yamamoto made his third start of the postseason and threw a full recreation against the Brewers to put the Dodgers forward 2-0 in the NL Championship Series.
Eleven days later, he tossed another 9 innings to help the Dodgers even the collection against the Blue Jays. And he wrapped up the World Series with appearances on back-to-back days, beginning Game 6 and ending Game 7.
Yamamoto threw 526 pitches in the postseason, 235 in the World Series alone, and he still touched almost 97 mph in his last inning of work.
Most pitchers would need at least a full offseason to get better. When Blake Snell slow-played his offseason because of lingering shoulder discomfort after the World Series run, the choice made all the sense in the world.
Yamamoto, however, was already pitching in significant video games by March 6.
In Yamamoto’s first start of the WBC, he held Chinese Taipei hitless for 2 ⅔ innings. Then in the quarterfinal recreation against Venezuela last Saturday, he surrendered a leadoff homer to Ronald Acuña Jr. and a second-inning RBI double to Gleyber Torres before settling in for two scoreless innings. The eventual 8-5 loss eradicated Team Japan from the WBC.
“As Team Japan, the result was not what we were aiming for,” Yamamoto said. “But at a personal level, my condition was good.”
The season would be the true take a look at for Yamamoto’s training strategies, which have been notorious since before his transition from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, and are already spreading across the Dodgers’ clubhouse. Look no additional than shortstop Mookie Betts this week lauding the consequences of throwing a javelin.
If they continue to work, Yamamoto might be in the operating for the Cy Young Award, after ending third in National League voting last yr.
“There’s high competition, there are a lot of great pitchers out there,” Yamamoto said, “but I hope that I get there.”
Yamamoto’s offseason work, however, wasn’t merely geared toward getting to opening day or successful an particular person award. He is aware of as properly as anybody that this crew has set a high bar with back-to-back championships.
“The same goal,” Yamamoto said of 2026, “winning a world championship with this team.”
Now over 4 months eliminated from that last pitch of the 2025 World Series, one lesson has caught with Yamamoto.
“I learned how difficult [it is] to get one win,” he said. “As a team, I want to be able to share that joy.”
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