Yoshinobu Yamamoto put the finishing touches on a great regular season with yet another scoreless start on Thursday to earn the win in the game that clinched the National League West for the Dodgers.
Yamamoto
struck out seven Diamondbacks on Thursday at Chase Field , giving him 201 strikeouts on the season. That put him in select company, as the first Dodgers pitcher with at least 200 strikeouts since 2021, and only the fourth such season for the franchise in the last 10 years:
Dodgers most-recent 200-strikeout seasons
- 2017: Clayton Kershaw, 202 strikeouts
- 2019: Walker Buehler, 215 strikeouts
- 2021: Walker Buehler, 212 strikeouts
- 2025: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 201 strikeouts
Yamamoto is one of a dozen major league pitchers with 200 strikeouts this season, and among qualified pitchers ranks fifth with a 29.4-percent strikeout rate. If you’re looking for something hopeful heading into the postseason, here are the strikeout rates for the Dodgers rotation heading into next week: Shohei Ohtani 33 percent, Yamamoto 29.4 percent, Tyler Glasnow 29.2 percent, and Blake Snell 28.3 percent. And don’t forget about Emmet Sheehan (30.1 percent), who will pitch big innings in one way or another come October. That’ll play.
But it was Yamamoto who held the rotation together all season, one of only three pitchers on the staff to last on the active roster all season, along with relievers Anthony Banda and Jack Dreyer. Yamamoto ends his second regular season in MLB with a 2.49 ERA that ranks fourth in the majors, second in the National League only to likely Cy Young Award-winner Paul Skenes.
Yamamoto’s September was one to remember, a month so good that his four singles allowed on Thursday in Arizona ballooned his month to seven total hits, in four starts. Yamamoto in September allowed two runs in 27 innings, with 34 strikeouts. He won National League pitcher of the month for his work in March and April, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Yamamoto finishes his season with another monthly honor.
Stinginess was the norm for Yamamoto, who didn’t allow more than 12 runs in any month this season. In seventeen of his 30 starts he allowed zero or one run, tied for the seventh-most in a season in Dodgers history. After the All-Star break he allowed more than two runs only three times in 11 starts, and more than three runs only once.
Yamamoto was the rock of the Dodgers this season, and after his strong run last postseason, he’s one of the reasons to feel optimistic for the team this October, too.
