Dodgers 3, Rangers 0: Yoshinobu Yamamoto strikes out 10 over 7 shutout to win pitchers’ duel with a gem

Chad Moriyama 04/18/2025 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

Tonight started a weird five-game road trip that includes three off days in a week, and the matchup seemed like it could be a pitchers’ duel. Indeed that’s exactly what it was as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jacob deGrom went toe-to-toe over seven innings, but it was Yamamoto who made one less mistake, as Tommy Edman‘s lead-off homer ended up holding up in a 3-0 shutout victory for the Dodgers over the Rangers.

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The scoring in the game got off to a quick start, as Rangers starter Jacob deGrom was greeted rudely by new lead-off hitter Tommy Edman — who technically actually has more homer pop than Shohei Ohtani and everybody else in the NL this year — as he smashed his seventh homer to make it 1-0.

After that? Not much of anything, as the Dodgers didn’t get a RISP against deGrom all game. They managed a two-out single in the 2nd, a two-out walk in the 3rd, and a lead-off single in the 6th (erased by a caught stealing), but that was it through seven.

Not great.

Fortunately, Yoshinobu Yamamoto continued to meet the moment as the new Dodgers ace and a potential NL Cy Young Award candidate.

He started with a pair of strikeouts in the 1st that set the whiff-happy tone, and then worked around a one-out double in the 2nd. The main danger Yamamoto faced came in the 3rd and with two outs, as a single was followed by a double that looked like it might find the gap and score the runner, but Michael Conforto cut the ball off and saved the run. That proved all the more important when a groundout followed to help Yamamoto escape the jam.

It got even more important as the game went on and more zeros were posted. A two-out double in the 4th wasn’t much, and that was followed by a nine-pitch 5th. After another clean frame in the 6th, a one-out single to a speedy baserunner provided some excitement, but even that was erased quickly by a strike ’em out, throw ’em out double play to dramatically end his outing.

Just a masterful outing when they needed it most: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K, 102 Pitches.

From there the pens took over, but the Dodger offense didn’t get anything going in the 8th against the Rangers pen. Things went similarly the other way around, as Kirby Yates pitching against his old team posted a dominant clean inning in the 8th with a pair of strikeouts.

The Dodgers managed to breakthrough a bit in the 9th when Edman reached on an infield single and advanced to second when the ball got away from the first baseman to put a RISP with nobody out. A groundout to the right side from Mookie Betts moved him over to third, and the Rangers put Freddie Freeman on for matchup reasons and hoping to roll a double play. Instead, Teoscar Hernandez caught on to their gameplan of attacking him away and poked a single to right for an insurance run, making it 2-0.

A walk to Conforto followed to load the bases, and Will Smith fought off four 0-2 pitches before doing his specialty and lifting a sac fly to make it 3-0.

Closing things out was Tanner Scott, who looked … not great. A lead-off single was followed by what looked like another hit, but Max Muncy saved the day at third with a great play for the first out.

The tying run still got to the plate as another single followed to put a pair on, but it was Muncy again to bail out Scott by making a great play down the line in left for a game-ending double play.

A weird one, for sure.

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15-6, good enough for second place in the NL West.

Due to the weekend, tomorrow’s game will be some hours earlier at 10:05 AM HT/1:05 PM PT/4:05 PM, and it’ll be on FOX. So of course it’ll be Roki Sasaki for the national audience against very old friend Nathan Eovaldi.

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