The last thing the Los Angeles need is an injury to another starting pitcher, not to mention team ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Yamamoto has been sublime so far in the early part of this year. He has the second lowest era in the National League (1.97), which tracks only New York Mets pitcher Kodai Senga. Yamamoto is also linked to his second league victory (6).
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On Monday with Cleveland and the Guardians, it was another great performance for the little right-handed star. Yamamoto went into six innings and allowed only three hits and two runs while batting seven batters.
The numbers don’t show physical issues, but the play at one base in three innings (shown below) when Yamamoto ran to feed the bunt and tag the runners could have resulted in hip problems.
manager Dave Roberts said Yamamoto had “a bit of a hip problem” after playing for Ichibase. He pulled him after 88 pitches throughout six innings.
“I don’t know if that kind of thing went into the mechanic in those five and six innings. It didn’t seem like that great,” Roberts said. “And for me, we felt he pushed a lot of his final outings (110 pitches) so we kept him down to the fullest while preparing for (his next start) Sunday (against the Yankees).”
For now, there is no cause for concern. Certainly, the training staff will be watching him enthusiastically over the next few days, given the team the value of Yamamoto due to an injury to the pitching staff.
Yamamoto’s next scheduled start will be on Sunday at home and the New York Yankees to visit.
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Photo credit: Brett Davis-Immagn Image
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