NEW YORK — It was a parade of stars at the plate worthy of October – and a parade of zeroes on the scoreboard, also postseason-worthy.
The Dodgers and New York Yankees stuffed their lineups with five former MVPs on Friday night in the opener of a three-game series billed as a potential World Series preview. But Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a collective of six Yankees pitchers engaged in a scoreless duel for 10 innings before Teoscar Hernandez came through with a two-run double in the 11th and the Dodgers came away with a 2-1 victory.
“Tonight felt different,” Hernandez said, voicing what most of the Dodgers tried to downplay. “I’ve been in a wild-card game and it’s a little different. But it felt like a playoff game today. I like that. I like to play in these atmospheres and try to keep going and do my best.”
Those five former MVPs (Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton) went a combined 3 for 18 with Judge getting two of the hits.
“Wow, what a game. Man,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“I think it’s one of those old adages – good pitching beats good hitting. You can run out as many good hitters as you can find. But if you get a pitcher, or pitchers – and we used a slew of pitchers tonight, both teams – you’re gonna have a good chance to prevent runs.”
Paid like a star before he even threw a pitch in the majors, Yamamoto has been living up to his paycheck. On the big stage at Yankee Stadium for the first time, he held the Yankees in check for seven innings and a career-high 106 pitches.
“His best outing as a Dodger,” Roberts said. “You could just see it. He felt it. He knew we needed it. And it brought out the best in him. I can’t say enough about his effort tonight.”
Yamamoto gave up a two-out double to Judge in the first inning and a two-out single to Trent Grisham in the second inning which put runners at the corners (after an error by Kiké Hernandez at third base). But he retired 12 consecutive batters after that and 15 of his final 17, a stretch marred only by two walks and no more hits.
It was the fourth of Yamamoto’s first 13 starts this season in which he didn’t allow a run but the first to cover seven innings. He has allowed two runs or fewer in eight of those 13 starts.
The Yankee Stadium atmosphere might have been good for Yamamoto’s fastball. He averaged 97 mph on it Friday, up from 95.3 mph over his first 12 starts. Vulnerable at times, he got seven of his 13 swings-and-misses on his four-seamer and struck out seven.
“I think that was just my mechanics working very well today,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter about the added velocity.
“I did know this matchup was going to draw a lot of attention compared to the other series. But just like I’ve been saying, I was just trying to do what I’ve been doing in other games.”
The Yankees’ brawny lineup came into the game having scored an MLB-leading 321 runs with the dynamic duo of Judge and Juan Soto getting all the headlines. But their pitching has also been a driving force behind their best-in-baseball 45-19 record, posting another MLB best – a 2.78 ERA.
The Dodgers had runners on base in each of the first seven innings against starter Cody Poteet and a series of relievers (including former Dodgers Victor Gonzalez and Caleb Ferguson). They didn’t get any past first base until Betts followed Kiké Hernandez’s two-out walk with a single in the fifth. Ohtani grounded out to end the inning.
Hernandez doubled with two outs in the seventh and was stranded there.
The Yankees’ best chance came in the eighth when Anthony Banda gave up back-to-back singles with two outs, bringing Judge to the plate for an October-worthy matchup against Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen.
Judge drew a walk after a 10-pitch battle (only the second in 41 batters this season against Treinen) and brought Stanton to the plate with the bases loaded. Treinen got him to fly out.
“That’s fun,” Treinen said of the matchups with Judge and Stanton.
“Obviously you want to be great at what you do and to do that you’ve got to compete against them. He got me. But I’m not even upset I walked him. Sometimes you can challenge guys, try to get them to come out of their comfort zone. I made some pitches trying to get him on the ground or swing and miss.”
The Dodgers couldn’t advance their free runner in the top of the 10th. Gavin Lux struck out and that runner, Andy Pages, was thrown out trying to get to third on a ground ball to shortstop. Betts drew a walk to bring up Ohtani with two outs. But he hit a 107.8 mph ground ball right at first baseman Anthony Rizzo.
“Yeah, it is. I think Aaron (Boone, Yankees manager) feels the same way,” Roberts said about failing to advance the free runner. “Those guys out on the mound are still trying to prevent that guy from advancing. I wish it was as easy as just get the guy over. But clearly, you see it every night in baseball, it’s just not a given they can advance them.
“The pitching is tough. I’m not making an excuse for it. We still gotta get guys over. But it’s certainly not easy.”
Michael Grove stranded the Yankees’ free runner in the 10th and the Dodgers finally broke through in the top of the 11th. After Freeman drew a walk to put two runners on, Will Smith flew out. But Teoscar Hernandez laced a double into the left-center field gap to score both.
“I didn’t expect anything less than this, what happened tonight,” Teoscar Hernandez said. “Everybody knows the way they’re playing. They’ve played really good for years. It was not going to be easy to win ballgames. We just felt we needed to play the best we can and score some runs and let the pitching do their job the way they did today.”
A bullpen depleted by covering 12⅓ innings the previous two days (after short starts by James Paxton and Walker Buehler) was down to Yohan Ramirez in the 11th. He gave up an RBI single to Judge but closed it out.
“No offense, everybody’s been building it up. To me and honestly most of these guys, it’s still another team,” Treinen said. “You see what they’ve done this year and it’s awesome.
“Obviously you know all those things but when it comes to making it bigger than it is, I don’t think so. We just know that on any given night there’s big-league talent on the field. There’s some superstars over there obviously. It’s just nice to put a good game together.”
Teoscar Hernández breaks the scoreless tie with a 2-run double in the 11th inning! 😤 pic.twitter.com/xwXp1ETfGl
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) June 8, 2024
Six scoreless frames from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/ZlLHmisN6p
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) June 8, 2024
Teoscar Hernández: “I’ve been taking really good at-bats the last 2-3 weeks but i wasn’t getting the results and finally the last two days I’m getting good results and the most important for me is that we’re winning… just trying to do my part to help the team win.” pic.twitter.com/bETzpaxtJq
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) June 8, 2024
Dave Roberts discusses Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s seven shutout innings and his takeaways from the win. pic.twitter.com/XsGi9KoBjE
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) June 8, 2024