Yoshinobu Yamamoto returns from injured list

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers have desperately needed some good news regarding their depleted starting rotation. Yoshinobu Yamamoto‘s return came at the perfect time.

Yamamoto took the hill Tuesday after missing nearly three months with a right shoulder injury. The Japanese right-hander delivered another impressive performance, striking out eight and allowing one run on four hits over four dominant innings in the Dodgers’ 6-3 loss to the Cubs at Dodger Stadium.

“Very impressive,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “We’ll take this every start going forward. Fastball command, both sides of the plate. Hits the low dart, the split down below. Stealing a strike with the breaking ball. It was just really efficient. Yeah, it was really good.”

Given how long Yamamoto was sidelined, coupled with two shaky rehab outings with Triple-A Oklahoma City, the Dodgers came into Tuesday’s start not knowing exactly what they were going to get out of the 26-year-old.

Right from the start, however, it was evident they were getting exactly the player the Dodgers made the highest-paid pitcher in history with a 12-year deal last winter. Yamamoto needed just 15 pitches to strike out the side in the first inning. He was sitting 98 mph with his four-seam fastball and the splitter-curveball combination had the Cubs’ hitters completely off-balance.

“Everything looked good — his fastball, his curveball, split. It was pretty surprising,” said Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes. “I didn’t know how he was going to look coming back, but he looked better than ever.”

In the second, Yamamoto allowed three hits, though one could’ve been called an error on Freddie Freeman, as a tricky hop near first base bounced away from Freeman in what turned out to be an RBI single for Pete Crow-Armstrong.

Yamamoto was able to bounce back right away, striking out the top of the Cubs’ order for a second time in the third inning. The right-hander, who was only scheduled to throw three innings on Tuesday, went back out for the fourth and got an inning-ending double play from Michael Busch to end his outing.

“It was good to see Yoshi back,” said third baseman Max Muncy. “We’ve been missing him, so it was nice to see him come back. His stuff looked really sharp. His velo was there, the execution was there, so that was nice to see. … That’s going to be really huge for us down the stretch.”

In just 59 pitches, Yamamoto was able to get 11 swings-and-misses. Six of those came on a splitter that had an uptick of 1.7 mph above his season average. Yamamoto also got three swings-and-misses on the curveball and two on the four-seamer.

Yamamoto only threw his slider one time on Tuesday. He threw it a season-high 13 times in his last start against the Yankees before landing on the injured list.

“Today’s outing turned out much better than I expected,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “It’s more about relief today. I got to come back and finish what I need to do. I think I’m going to take it one game at a time.”

Regardless of how Yamamoto uses his pitch mix moving forward, he delivered some much-needed relief for the Dodgers on Tuesday. Starting pitching depth is what ultimately doomed Los Angeles in the postseason in 2023, and injuries have begun to take a significant toll on the team with just three weeks remaining before the end of the regular season.

With Yamamoto back in the rotation and delivering this time of production, the Dodgers will feel much better about where their starting staff is heading into the stretch run.

“I feel much better about the rotation tonight than I did 24 hours ago,” Roberts said.

Unfortunately for Yamamoto and the Dodgers, disastrous defense in the eighth ultimately led to a tough loss for Los Angeles. With a two-run lead, Barnes threw one wide of Freddie Freeman at first base on an easy tapper in front of the plate. On the next play, after Seiya Suzuki hit an RBI single, Tommy Edman was credited with a throwing error that was also aided by some miscommunication in the infield by Miguel Rojas and Muncy.

Three batters later, it didn’t get much better for the Dodgers. Kiké Hernández tried to apply a tag as Cody Bellinger ran to second base. The ball, however, came out of Hernández’s glove, instead recording no outs on the play for the third error of the inning. In the end, the Dodgers allowed five runs in the frame, and couldn’t mount a comeback as they lost their second straight to visiting Chicago.

“This one’s on me,” Barnes said. “I’ve got to make that play. It changes the whole inning. Runner at first or first and second is a lot different pitching. Just the whole inning got screwed up.”