Was Yamamoto tipping his pitches? His manager thinks so
Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s performance in Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Padres on Saturday night was a bumpy one. He allowed five runs — tying his season high — in his three innings of work. Seven of the 16 batters he faced reached base.
It was as if the Padres knew what was coming from the right-hander. And maybe they did.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts indicated after the club’s 7-5 win that Yamamoto might have been tipping his pitches.
“There are some things that I think we’re going to dig into, because I think at second base they had some things with his glove [that were] giving away some pitches,” Roberts said. “We’re going to clean that up. That’s part of baseball. So it’s on us to kind of clean that up and not give away what pitch he’s going to throw.”
Yamamoto gave up two run-scoring hits while a runner was on second base during his start. In the first inning, he surrendered a two-run home run to Manny Machado while Fernando Tatis Jr. was at second. Two innings later, with Tatis on second and Jackson Merrill on first, Xander Bogaerts got to Yamamoto for a two-run double.
