Epic Duel
The Dodgers are back.
For all baseball fans who appreciate good ace pitching duels, it was a given that the Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs Yu Darvish duel would be a great challenge.
Two true pitching aces. Two pitchers born in Japan. Two right-handers whose talent and determination is capable of shining on any Major League stage. Two of the most dominant starters of their time, looking for a success in Game 5 of the NLDS to advance to the National League Championship Series.
Yamamoto was coming off of being hit in Game 1 with five earned runs in three innings. Darvish had pitched a gem in Game 2, in the style of the eighties: seven innings with one earned run allowed, just three hits, three strikeouts and two walks with 82 pitches. Most pitchers today are worrying too much about striking out.
For all that it meant to the Dodgers, the Padres, Japan and baseball, a great pitching duel was expected at Dodger Stadium.
And so it was.
Let's talk a little bit about pitching. I want to tell you some of the things I saw and the feeling I got from enjoying this great duel between two of the most talented pitchers in the Majors. Obviously, Darvish, 38, is already a veteran with enough experience to handle the pressure in an elimination game on the postseason stage. Remember, he was also a Dodger. His brilliance has been undeniable. Yamamoto, 26, is facing his first postseason. He has everything to make history in the game.
So, play ball!
Yamamoto started off dominating the first inning with 10 pitches, eight of them for strikes. His command was a preview of what we would see on a dominant night of 63 masterful pitches. Luis Arraez started the top of the first inning with a 75 mph grounder to first. And then Fernando Tatis Jr. struck out trying to hit a venomous 87 mph slider that broke out of the middle toward the outside corner. The big success was Yamamoto's bold spotting for two key points:
1) He needed to throw a slider deceptive enough for Tatis Jr. to swing at on a 1-2 count.
2) Yamamoto gave up a two-strike homer to Manny Machado in Game 1. He fell short on too many counts. So, on a two-strike count, he needed to finish off his opponents.
The final out of the first inning was a 92 mph grounder to first by Jurickson Profar. That first scoreless inning was key to Yamamoto's start, as he seemed to bring all his weapons to the level the Dodgers expected. By the way, I was struck by the fact that Yamamoto didn't throw his splitter in the first inning. Yamamoto threw the splitter on 24 percent of his 1,469 pitches in his Dodgers debut this year.
After his four-seam fastball (he threw it on 41 percent), the splitter was his most-used weapon. However, Yamamoto began by slightly changing his mix. He threw seven four-seam fastballs out of his 10 pitches. He used just three additional pitch types: a cutter, a curveball and a slider. All were paired before and after fastballs.
In his previous start, Yamamoto had thrown six splitters on his first 17 pitches until Machado hit a two-run homer that gave the Padres a 3-0 lead. The fact that Yamamoto didn't show off his splitter in the first inning raised a lot of questions. Regardless of the pitching plan the Dodgers laid out, Yamamoto looked faster. And, in fact, his fastball was touching 97 mph. Either way, the first impression of the night was that Yamamoto felt good about his pitches. He brought his elite command back and gave an interesting preview of his stuff. Everything started off under control.
Here comes Darvish! And the first matchup of the night couldn't be more exciting! Shohei Ohtani vs Yu Darvish. Or, what's the same, Ohtani against his teenage idol. Before the game, Darvish had completely limited Ohtani, who was hitting 1-for-8 with three strikeouts. Ultimately, Darvish was the victor again: he struck out Shohei with an 87 mph slider on a 3-2 count during a six-pitch at-bat.*
*Throughout the game, Darvish dominated Ohtani, who seemed a bit unfocused and finished 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
Darvish also threw out Mookie Betts on a 3-2 count, but he drew a 74 mph curveball in the middle of the strike zone. Betts grounded out to the shortstop for the second out. On the first pitch, Freddie Freeman hit a 101 mph single to right field. He had seen 12 pitches from Darvish before coming to the plate. Sometimes, that's the difference veterans can make. It's a team effort. Ohtani and Betts took more than five pitches and that caused Darvish to use virtually all of his pitches. The other point here is that Darvish attacked the strike zone again. He did so all night. Two pitches later, Darvish threw a sinker and Teoscar Hernandez's swing didn't come in time. He hit a pop out to first for the third out of the first inning.
So began the Yamamoto vs Darvish challenge, offering a preview of the great pitching duel we enjoyed for just over 75 minutes. Before we get to some combined numbers for our delight, I'd like to give you a quick breakdown. Here's what Yamamoto and Darvish threw throughout the night at Dodger Stadium:
Darvish:
Curveball, 19
Sweeper, 14
Sinker, 10
Splitter, 9
4-Seam Fastball, 9
Slider, 8
Cutter, 8
Total, 77
Yamamoto:
4-Seam Fastball, 32
Splitter, 11
Curveball, 11
Slider, 5
Cutter, 4
Total, 63
The command of each pitch by both Japanese aces was masterful. As for Yamamoto, I was struck by how he adjusted his pitch mix throughout the night, depending on the situation. He started out throwing fastballs in the first two innings. In the third inning, when he came up for the second time against the Padres lineup, Yamamoto threw five fastballs and mixed his other eight pitches between breaking balls and splitters. For the rest of the game, he threw 11 pitches in different counts, a strategy the Padres really didn't expect.
The most interesting trend that shows Yamamoto's success is that Padres hitters pulled the ball consistently. But Yamamoto threw an impressive dose of close-in pitches. In the end, left-handed hitters went 1-for-9 when they pulled the ball. The only one who had success was Arraez, with a single to right field in the top of the third inning.
The most dangerous balls put into play came from Manny Machado, a pair of fly balls to deep right field in the top of the second and fourth innings, respectively. Machado hit a pair of fastballs from Yamamoto. According to StatCast, the first fly ball would have gone in five of MLB's 30 ballparks, and the second in at least 12. But Yamamoto was pitching at Dodger Stadium, where Machado's xBA didn't even break .800.
Yamamoto was so consistent in command that 60% of the top 10 fastest swings all night were by Padres hitters. Half of them were by Fernando Tatis Jr. (3) and Manny Machado (2). However, this time it wasn't about acceleration. The Padres were hitting, but it didn't have the expected result. The success of the Dodgers' pitchers' effective command was key throughout the game. More on that in a few minutes. Now back to Darvish. Throughout the night, Darvish established two trends that led to near-absolute dominance:
(!) He led off in the count against 18 of his 23 opponents—yes, 18! That's 78%. Phenomenal.
(!!) He took seven batters to two strikes. None came back. The Dodgers went 0-for-7 with five strikeouts.