{"id":1001855,"date":"2026-08-15T06:33:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T06:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1001855\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T06:33:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T06:33:32","slug":"yoshinobu-yamamoto-shines-edwin-diaz-struggles-in-dodgers-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1001855\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoshinobu Yamamoto shines, Edwin D\u00edaz struggles in Dodgers’ win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The jury\u2019s still out on which team is the best in the National League.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 series against the Brewers set up a chance for the home team to claw back onto the top of the National League standings. They could pull themselves the rest of the way out of a recent rut with a statement series against their competition for a No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n

But after the Dodgers beat the Brewers 3-1<\/a> on Friday, the series stood tied at one game apiece, with two more to go.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers (74-49) still trailed the Brewers (75-48), but the win trimmed the gap to one game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big one,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said of the series. \u201cObviously it\u2019s a team that we\u2019re chasing. But it\u2019s not the end-all, be-all regardless of how this series plays out. But it\u2019s something that we\u2019ve looked forward to. It\u2019s a really good team over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a matchup between two teams with opposing identities. The Dodgers are the large-market powerhouse loaded with star power seeking their third straight World Series trophy.<\/p>\n

The Brewers are the small-market overachievers, who somehow have retained their little-engine-that-could persona despite owning the best regular-season record in baseball last year.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers during the first inning of a 3-1 win over the Brewers at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Dodgers pulled ahead by flexing their power-hitting ability \u2014 the main hole in the fundamentally sound Brewers\u2019 game.<\/p>\n

The Brewers tied the score in the fifth inning, manufacturing a run with a leadoff double, bunt single and sacrifice fly from the bottom of the order. That was the only run Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> gave up in six innings \u2014 holding the Brewers to four hits while striking out nine.<\/p>\n

In the bottom half of the inning, the Dodgers recorded their first extra-base hit off Brewers starter Robert Gasser.<\/p>\n

Andy Pages already singled in each of his first two at-bats. With two outs in the fifth, he lifted a sweeper into the seats beyond the left-field corner to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n

\"Andy <\/p>\n

Andy Pages flips his bat after hitting a solo home run during the fifth inning of the Dodgers\u2019 win over the Brewers on Friday.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The next inning, Tommy Edman expanded that advantage with a solo homer of his own off Gasser.<\/p>\n

For the second straight night, the Dodgers had a two-run lead going into the seventh. On Thursday, closer Edwin D\u00edaz blew a save opportunity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Friday, history did not repeat itself. But it wasn\u2019t a comfortable ninth inning for D\u00edaz, either.<\/p>\n

After Dodgers relievers Evan Phillips and Tanner Scott threw a pair of scoreless innings, Dodger Stadium was plunged into darkness before Timmy Trumpet\u2019s \u201cNarco\u201d sounded over the speakers to a light show.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz took the mound and hit Andrew Vaughn with his seventh pitch, generating a smattering of boos.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz bounced back by striking out Christian Yelich. But then he walked William Contreras.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz gave up a rocketed ground ball to Luis Lara, but Edman, manning second base, went to a knee to snag it for the second out of the inning. Then D\u00edaz walked David Hamilton to load the bases.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz induced Joey Ortiz to ground out to Mookie Betts at shortstop to end the game.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The jury\u2019s still out on which team is the best in the National League. The Dodgers\u2019 series against…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1001856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[53298,1582,276,31960,2442,31972,42933,5208,1910,89616,2961,5615,224,5337,6166,293775,3007,289953,6599,2030],"class_list":["post-1001855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-brewer","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-diaz","tag-dodgers","tag-edwin-diaz","tag-fifth-inning","tag-friday","tag-game","tag-innings","tag-la","tag-lead","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-series","tag-seventh","tag-team","tag-timmy-trumpet","tag-tommy-edman","tag-win"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117098133205177998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}