Arlington, Texas – One of the starting launchers on Friday evening won two Cy Young awards.
The other is one of the first cases to win one of his own.
For years, Jacob Degrom A (in good health) the golden stallion of major leagues. He has a 2.54 career era. He is a quadruple All-Star and twice withdrawal. In 2018 and 2019, he won the consecutive honors of Cy Young.
However, during the 3-0 Dodgers victory over the Degrom Texas Rangers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the best launcher.
Although Degrom has abandoned a single point in seven strong rounds, Yamamoto turned seven -sleeves aimlessly to Globe Life Field. Where Degrom withdrew seven and walked one, Yamamoto managed 10 stick withdrawals and without free pass.
This helped the Dodgers (15-6) win the series’s opening match between the last two champions of the World Series; A victory also helped by two late races and two web jewels of Max Muncy to escape a ninth round jam.
He also cemented one of the first most promising scenarios of this year’s team – claiming Yamamoto, in his second MLB season, as a legitimate front line apparently ready for a Cy Young prosecution.
“He raised his game to another level,” said manager Dave Roberts. “We could see that he was going against one of the best in the match in Decrom, and he obviously equaled the pitch for the pitch.”
Friday presented a new challenge for Yamamoto, which entered with an MPM of 1.23 during its first four departures. His fast ball did not have his typical life, seated a tick less than normal at 95 mph. His separator, although always mean, was a little wilder than usual at first.
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Thus, the 26 -year -old Japanese star dug more deeply in her Tours bag. What he found, the Rangers (12-8) were powerless to attack.
“He used his whole repertoire tonight,” said Roberts. “He just had so much conviction with each terrain.”
This included his curve, one of the few areas of weakness in the start of the season otherwise Sterling in Yamamoto. Last year, Roberts described The Pitch one of the best he has ever seen as a right -hander. But this season, the opponents entered the night by hitting. 429 against her. Yamamoto had not recorded a withdrawal with him once.
Friday was another story. Yamamoto broke a burst of large bending curves, generating four puffs on 11 swings. He represented two of his stick withdrawals, including one at Joc Pederson who blocked the runners in the second and third of the third. And out of the seven that Texas put into play, only two fell for the sure blows.
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“If you look at him in full, his belongings tonight,” said Roberts, “I thought it was his best outing.”
It was the same story with the rarely used cursor of Yamamoto, which he gradually mixed with the second and third time through the programming to give the Rangers a different and more unpredictable look.
He fused Jake Burger with one to finish the fourth, failing yet another runner in the second row. He used it again on his 102nd and last throw, recording a shot, throw them with double game to finish seven heats for the third time only in his MLB career.
“He just has so many ways to get ahead of the strikers,” said his teammate Tommy Edman. “He can throw a bent ball. He can get rid of a quick ball. He just has so many ways to get back into the account. Then, once he is in the count, he has a lot of land to put them away. He has something for each situation. And he has executed them all.”
The Yamamoto separator was also still effective. He launched it 31 times (more than any other offering) while generating seven puffs out of 17 swings (four of them for stick withdrawals).
More importantly, Yamamoto felt that he had taken more often in the counting than in his previous outings, mixing a dose of lead and cutters to keep the rangers constantly unbalanced.
“I have the impression that my pitch mixture works better and better,” said Yamamoto by interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “Regarding the sequences, I give up roughly our coaches and pitch sensors. But this year, I was able to control each of my locations.”
All this recalled that Yamamoto – whose 0.93 era is the best in the national league – continues to become a completely finished product. This, after brief lightnings of shine last season, he begins to assemble all the pieces for a big league campaign in the second year.
“I think at the moment, he is the best launcher in the national league,” said Roberts, offering only Paul Skenes of Pittsburgh as potential exception.
“He was a man on a mission. He was unstoppable,” said Edman. “I can’t really imagine that anyone is better than him right now.”
Degrom, 36, who also remains in this conversation, even in the back of his career, was almost as good in the launcher duel on Friday. He only gave three shots, touched 99 mph with his first quick ball and withdrew 13 of the last 14 strikers he faced.
But during the first round, he launched a radiator raised to Edman (who filled the head striker in the absence of Ohtani) that the Utilityman struck his seventh Home Run at the head of the NL.
He turned out to be the only real degrom error.
The way Yamamoto dominated was too big.
“I think there is a feeling of pride,” said Roberts when he was asked what it meant for Yamamoto exceeded Degrom, one of the stars of the Yamamoto League, the most admired at the start of his career in Japan.
“You look at you who are opposing,” added Roberts. “He’s one of the best in the game. I know that Yoshi has followed him for years, Cy Young Winner. You want to go on foot with him on the road. And he did it.”
