Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets strikeout-happy Reds lineup

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 2: Yoshinobu Yamamoto #18 of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium on September 2, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) | Getty Images Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts as the Dodgers host t

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What is the story about?

Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts as the Dodgers host the Reds for a final time, going for a second straight home sweep and potentially extending their current win streak to seven games. It’s a curious time in Yamamoto’s regular-season campaign, as he could feasibly tie last season’s innings total with four fewer regular-season starts, although that would take him covering 7.2 innings against the Reds tonight. Evidently, it’s an unlikely accomplishment, although Yamamoto has done it five times before this

season, so one could hardly call it a significant surprise.

Subtle differences make up Yamamoto’s current campaign in comparison with last year, ultimately reaching the same destination of outstanding quality and an identical 12-8 record up to this point. Yamamoto has sacrificed strikeouts—going from a 29.5% K% to a 25.4% K%—to also drastically cut back on walks, lowering his 8.6% BB% from a season ago to just 6.0% BB%, ultimately leading to more efficient outings, which is what allows him to cover more innings on fewer starts.

On the subject of strikeouts, though, we’ve seen an interesting development that’s worth keeping an eye on as Yamamoto and the Dodgers prepare for postseason ball. Last season’s World Series MVP has experienced an uptick in strikeouts, punching out eight or more batters in each of his last five starts. Before this sequence, Yamamoto had only struck out eight or more in five of his first 20 starts. And as Dodger pitchers have come to learn in the previous two games of this series, the Cincinnati Reds lineup—for as dangerous as it may seem when it’s rolling—also strikes out like no other, number one in baseball with a 25.4% K%.

Earlier in the week, Emmet Sheehan tied a career-high in strikeouts against the Reds with 10 punchouts, and you want to know who also has 10 as his career-high mark in punchouts stateside? Yamamoto, who last earned this mark in early July in a win against the Padres.