LOS ANGELES — Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Nolan McLean engaged in a wonderful pitching duel on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, pitchers with different styles but equally vast repertoires, and both exceedingly difficult to score against. Offenses were kept mostly at bay until the eighth inning, when both teams threatened but only the Dodgers were able to push across the game-winner, beating the Mets 2-1.
Pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas walked to open the eighth, and was sacrificed to second by pinch-hitter Santiago
Espinal. With first base opened, Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked (extending his on-base streak to 48 games, by the way), setting up a struggling Kyle Tucker to dunk one just behind third base for the Dodgers’ first lead of the night.
Both starting pitchers gave up single runs in the first inning, and nothing else. Francisco Lindor hitting a leadoff home run off Yamamoto, and Will Smith doubling off McLean to set up two runner in scoring position, only one of whom scored, on a groundout.
Yamamoto struck out seven in his 7 2/3 innings, allowing four hits and a walk in a tidy 104 pitches. McLean struck out eight in his seven innings, giving up two hits and two walks on 95 pitches. By all accounts, an incredible duel.
Yamamoto not only kept the Mets in the ballpark after the Lindor home run, he mostly confined them to the infield. He induced 10 groundouts, five of which were to Freddie Freeman at first base, who dutifully fed a covering Yamamoto four times.
Yamamoto retired 20 batters in a row after the Lindor home run, until Bo Bichette snapped the string with a double over third base with two outs in the seventh inning. Yamamoto then issued his first walk of the night, to Francisco Alvarez on five pitches, in his first real jam of the night. But he struck out Baty to end the seventh, keeping the game knotted at one apiece.
With Thursday’s off day pending and a six-man rotation, Yamamoto’s next start will likely be next Tuesday, on six days rest, which made the decision to keep him — at 94 pitches — in for the eighth inning much easier to make. Yamamoto got the first two outs, but a pair of singles put runners at the corners and ended his night.
Blake Treinen rode the tightrope, allowing Lindor to steal second base to put two runners in scoring position, but then struck out Luis Robert Jr. on seven pitches to keep the game tied.
With closer Edwin Díaz still day-to-day, the Dodgers turned to Alex Vesia for the ninth inning with a one-run lead, and he struck out all three batters he faced.
After Monday’s win took two hours, 13 minutes for the shortest Dodgers game of the season, Tuesday night needed only two hours, three minutes to complete.
Tuesday particulars
Home run: Francisco Lindor (1)
WP — Blake Treinen (1-0): 1 batter, 1 strikeout
LP — Brooks Raley (0-1): 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 2 walks, 1 strikeout
Sv — Alex Vesia (2): 1 IP, 3 strikeouts
Up next
One more game remains on the homestand, with Shohei Ohtani starting on the mound Wednesday night (7:10 p.m., ESPN), and Clay Holmes pitching for the Mets.
