{"id":663994,"date":"2026-03-18T08:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/663994\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T08:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T08:25:16","slug":"yoshinobu-yamamotos-lead-up-to-dodgers-opening-day-hard-to-put-into-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/663994\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s lead-up to Dodgers opening day ‘hard to put into words’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The first pitch of the Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 2026 season won\u2019t capture the exuberance of the last pitch of 2025. But it will be meaningful in its own right, as the official first step of the team\u2019s quest for a third straight championship.<\/p>\n

How poetic that the same arm should deliver both pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honor for me,\u201d Dodgers opening day starter<\/a> Yoshinobu Yamamoto said Tuesday through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. \u201cAnd then it\u2019s opening day at a Dodger Stadium home game, and that\u2019s very [much an] honor to me. I also feel the responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 town. It will be the second opening-day start of Yamamoto\u2019s MLB career, and his first at home.<\/p>\n

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 especially quick turnaround to pitch for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put into words,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cHe is just very driven, he\u2019s very disciplined in his work. That\u2019s 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\u2019t have enough to pitch in the WBC. He wanted to pitch for his country, and now he\u2019s really excited about the start of 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a very determined person. He really is. We\u2019re just lucky he\u2019s on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one needs to be reminded that Yamamoto was a playoff hero last year, but let\u2019s really break down his efforts.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 14, Yamamoto made his third start of the postseason and threw a complete game against the Brewers to put the Dodgers ahead 2-0 in the NL Championship Series.<\/p>\n

Eleven days later, he tossed another nine innings to help the Dodgers even the series against the Blue Jays. And he wrapped up the World Series with appearances on back-to-back days, starting Game 6 and finishing Game 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yamamoto threw 526 pitches in the postseason, 235 in the World Series alone, and he still touched nearly 97 mph in his final inning of work.<\/p>\n

Most pitchers would need at least a full offseason to recover. When Blake Snell slow-played his offseason because of lingering shoulder discomfort after the World Series run, the decision made all the sense in the world.<\/p>\n

Yamamoto, however, was already pitching in meaningful games by March 6.<\/p>\n

In Yamamoto\u2019s first start of the WBC, he held Chinese Taipei hitless for 2 \u2154 innings. Then in the quarterfinal game against Venezuela last Saturday, he surrendered a leadoff homer to Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. and a second-inning RBI double to Gleyber Torres before settling in for two scoreless innings. The eventual 8-5 loss eliminated Team Japan from the WBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Team Japan, the result was not what we were aiming for,\u201d Yamamoto said. \u201cBut at a personal level, my condition was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The season will be the true test for Yamamoto\u2019s training methods, which have been infamous since before his transition from Japan\u2019s Nippon Professional Baseball, and are already spreading across the Dodgers\u2019 clubhouse. Look no further than shortstop Mookie Betts this week lauding the effects<\/a> of throwing a javelin.<\/p>\n

If they continue to work, Yamamoto could be in the running for the Cy Young Award, after finishing third in National League voting last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s high competition, there are a lot of great pitchers out there,\u201d Yamamoto said, \u201cbut I hope that I get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamamoto\u2019s offseason work, however, wasn\u2019t simply geared toward getting to opening day or winning an individual award. He knows as well as anyone that this team has set a high bar with back-to-back championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same goal,\u201d Yamamoto said of 2026, \u201cwinning a world championship with this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now over four months removed from that final pitch of the 2025 World Series, one lesson has stuck with Yamamoto.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned how difficult [it is] to get one win,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a team, I want to be able to share that joy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The first pitch of the Dodgers\u2019 2026 season won\u2019t capture the exuberance of the last pitch of 2025.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":663995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[33792,1582,276,154448,2442,280945,280946,3688,2961,280947,224,5337,21700,121766,158146,24477,27020,8066,166668,20410],"class_list":["post-663994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-appearance","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-complete-game","tag-dodgers","tag-dodgers-opening-day","tag-full-offseason","tag-inning","tag-la","tag-leadup","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-pitch","tag-postseason","tag-team-japan","tag-wbc","tag-word","tag-work","tag-world-series-mvp","tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116249226811938258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663994","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=663994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}