In one version of this tale, Yoshinobu Yamamoto quietly skips a start and takes a week off without anyone noticing. Losing eight pounds in a few days is a significant amount. More resilient athletes than Yamamoto have been derailed by physical disruptions such as fever, exhaustion the whole miserable experience of getting sick on the road in New York. A pitcher’s mechanics rely on muscle memory developed over thousands of repetitions. That is not how things actually transpired.
Near the end of the Dodgers’ East Coast road trip, Yamamoto became ill and took several days to recover. It seemed like a fair compromise when the team postponed his planned start against the Boston Red Sox by one day. When he finally took the mound on August 1, he did something that wasn’t reasonable or at least didn’t seem reasonable at the time. Eight innings. Three runs.
Four hits. Tied for the most in the majors with Sandy Alcantara, this is his fourth appearance of at least eight innings this season. That isn’t the stat line of a person who is functioning at a reduced level. That’s outstanding performance in a situation that most starting pitchers would use as justification for taking a break.
It’s worth taking a moment to consider that. The Dodgers were in the midst of a six-game losing streak, which felt heavier than the numbers indicated because this team doesn’t typically lose for that long when they have won back-to-back World Series titles.
The fact that Yamamoto pitched competitively at all, eight days after losing eight pounds due to illness, said something genuine about the kind of competitor Los Angeles committed $325 million to prior to the 2024 season, even tho he was unable to stop the skid in that Red Sox start and lost after giving up the game-winning run in the eighth.
Over the next week, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s weight loss recovery story persisted. Yamamoto remained in Los Angeles to continue his between-start work without having to make another cross-country flight while the Dodgers went to Chicago for a road series at Wrigley Field. In hindsight, his return to the team in Arizona appears to be precisely the kind of subdued professionalism you would anticipate from someone who guides his pitching staff more by example than by proclamation.
Then came Chase Field on Saturday. He was essential to the Dodgers. Even the most optimistic sections of the fan base were beginning to feel uneasy as they were seven games into a losing streak and the offense had become quiet.
Yamamoto didn’t have his typical crispness and pitched 5.2 scoreless innings while walking three batters, which matched his season high. MLB.com pointed out his lack of sharpness, citing the walk total and the fact that Arizona never scored despite his failure to finish six innings for just the third time in 21 starts. Before Evan Phillips entered to strand the inherited mess, he continued to maneuver out of trouble, even after two runners reached in the sixth.
After ten innings, Los Angeles prevailed 2-1. All of this would not have been possible without Yamamoto’s early zeros. Kyle Tucker hit the game-winning home run in the eighth, Edwin Díaz gave up the lead in the ninth Shohei Ohtani scored the winning run in extra innings. He gave the offense the breathing room they needed over the course of 107 pitches.
His current ERA is 2.65. He has a WHIP of 0.89. He is being hit by opponents at a rate of 186. At a time when the Dodgers’ rotation has been frequently rearranged around him, Yamamoto’s numbers make him one of the most reliable arms in the National League.
As the chaos moves from teammate to teammate, it’s difficult to ignore how regularly he shows up.After Saturday’s victory, Yamamoto said thru interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda, “I think everyone was feeling the same way”. “We had a strong desire to prevail. My goal was to start the team off right.
That phrase has a subtle telling quality. The illness was not mentioned by him. He made no mention of the eight pounds. He discussed the team. It reads like the actions of someone who processed his Yoshinobu Yamamoto weight loss recovery in private and arrived prepared to compete, whether that’s due to professional discipline or true self-forgetfulness.
Most likely, the Dodgers will be alright. According to most projection systems, their chances of making the playoffs are absurdly still very high. Tarik Skubal has strengthened their roster depth, which helps them weather difficult times.
Yamamoto’s performance over the last two starts a total of 13.2 innings while recovering from a serious illness deserves recognition apart from the team’s overall circumstances. It’s the kind of low-key performance that only becomes apparent upon close inspection. which seems worthwhile in this instance.