Yoshinobu Yamamoto absolutely went off in the Bronx, tossing the first complete game of his regular season career and making the Yankees offense look totally lost. In a tense series that felt more like October than July, the Dodgers walked away with the series win, 2-1, marking their first return to Yankee Stadium since becoming 2024 world champions. While the Dodgers secured the overall edge, Yamamoto’s complete game was undoubtedly the biggest headline grabber.
Yamamoto’s Masterclass Stunned The Bronx
Watching Yamamoto carve up the Yankees on Sunday was something else. This dude, who’s only 27, pitched his first regular season complete game, needing just 102 pitches over nine innings. He gave up only two earned runs and four hits while striking out seven, just pure dominance. We all know he’s delivered complete games in the playoffs last year, helping the Dodgers snatch their second straight World Series, but doing it in the regular season like this? That’s next level. He was efficient too, throwing only 28 pitches through the first three innings. His opponent, 26-year-old Cam Schlittler, was touted as elite, but Yamamoto’s experience shone through. Schlittler struggled with his pitch count, hitting 98 after just 4.1 innings, largely because Dodgers hitters just kept fouling off his three fastballs. He threw his curveball, his only offspeed pitch, just 7% of the time, and you gotta wonder if mixing that in more would have saved his afternoon.
Yankees Offense Is In A Hole, And It’s Deeper Than They Think
The real story coming out of the Bronx, beyond Yamamoto’s brilliance, is just how flat the Yankees offense has been. It’s rough, man. Since Aaron Judge hit the injured list on June 2, this team is averaging just one run per game. One! Even worse, they are batting a pathetic .195 with runners in scoring position during that span, which is the worst in the entire league. Manager Aaron Boone keeps insisting this isn’t like 2023, when Judge got hurt and the team collapsed, missing the postseason. He says this year’s squad is more talented and can survive without him. On paper, sure, maybe. But the patterns are alarmingly similar: prolonged slumps and an inability to hit against legit pitchers. They couldn’t hit Yamamoto, obviously, but they also struggled against Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki in the opener, even though Sasaki came into the game with a 5.33 ERA in 81 innings pitched. That’s just not good enough.
This Dodgers-Yankees series was intense from start to finish. Max Muncy blasted his 18th homer, a go-ahead shot off Gerrit Cole, to lift the Dodgers to a 2-1 win in Friday’s opener. After Saturday’s rainout, the Dodgers took the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader with Yamamoto’s gem, 8-2. The Yankees managed to grab the finale, 2-1, thanks to Jazz Chisholm’s go-ahead solo homer in the eighth. But despite that win, the Yankees offense has some serious soul-searching to do. If these two powerhouses meet again this year, it’s going to be a rematch of the 2024 Fall Classic, and the Yankees need their bats ready.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
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