Ryan Yarbrough’s dominant performance and DJ LeMahieu’s first four-hit game in four years helped the Yankees avoid a sweep.
With big contributions from unlikely names, the Yankees managed to avoid the sweep at Dodger Stadium with a 7-3 victory. A highly productive offensive output against Yoshinobu Yamamoto—one of the best pitchers in the National League—deserves plenty of praise. Before getting to that, though, the main story of this game is the dominant performance of Ryan Yarbrough on the mound.
One can’t say that a night like this was completely “out of nowhere” because Yarbrough has been quite effective as a starter this season. That being said, the swingman-turned-fifth starter wasn’t the guy you’d expect to see dominating at Dodger Stadium, especially after Max Fried and Will Warren got knocked around by the same LA lineup.
Despite the blowout loss yesterday, the Yankees had to turn to many important relief pitchers simply to cover that entire ballgame, and that made length by the starter tonight essential. Outside of a hanging changeup that Tommy Edman deposited in the left field bullpen for a solo shot, the Dodgers got nothing going against Yarbrough, who completed six smooth innings, inducing at least one whiff on all five of his pitches.
One of the softest-throwing pitchers in the sport, Yarbrough slowed things down even further, tossing his sinkers and cutters one mile per hour slower than usual. Yarbrough induced 17 whiffs in total, one shy of the record mark for a pitcher against the Dodgers this season, as shown in the ESPN broadcast, a mark set by Paul Skenes earlier in the year.
Like it was the case with the Dodgers against Fried, the Yankees punished their opponent’s ace in a series where the best outings came from the likes of Yarbrough and Landon Knack. The key factor in this terrific performance for the Yanks’ offense against the Yamamoto, driving him out of the game before completing four innings, had to do with their work against his splitter.
One of the four runs scored against Yamamoto came on a wild pitch, but the other three were driven in on hits off the splitter. The first one came on a Jasson Domínguez RBI knock in the opening frame, and a couple of innings later, Ben Rice smashed a two-run shot well over the center-field wall.
Yamamoto threw 27 splitters in this outing, and not only did the Yankees swing at all six inside the zone, but they seldom swung at the ones outside the zone. A 20-percent swing rate on splitters off the plate was an outstanding mark, well below Yamamoto’s 43.4-percent mark this season. More importantly, when they did swing at those splitters inside the zone, damage was done. Yamamoto stymied the Bombers last June and then again in the World Series, but this time, they tagged him with a season-worst seven hits allowed.
Rice probably had the most important hit of this game, but if you think Yarbrough’s outing was a performance, wait until you get a load of what DJ LeMahieu did. The much-maligned veteran and former batting champ was crucial in helping the Yanks get some much-needed insurance runs, driving in two with a four-hit game, his first since June 26, 2021.
Those cushion runs come in handy considering Jonathan Loaáisiga looked a little shaky, allowing a pair of solo shots in the seventh to Andy Pages and Max Muncy.
In an effort led by Yarbrough, the Yankees did something that no other team had done this season, which is holding the top four in the Dodger lineup hitless. Containing the likes of Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman is easier said than done, but if you can do it, that’s a massive step towards a win.
A disappointing note about this game was the injury to Domínguez, who left the game early in the top of the sixth inning, pinch-hit by Cody Bellinger.
After this win, the Yankees return home to face yet another opponent they encountered during last year’s playoff run, the Cleveland Guardians. They’re off tomorrow, but on Tuesday, Carlos Rodón will face Tanner Bibee at 7:05pm ET.