Dodgers Interview: Yoshi Eager for the Ball in Game 3

PHILADELPHIA — With the series shifting back to Los Angeles on Wednesday, Yoshinobu Yamamoto will take the ball for Game 3. He spoke before Game 2 in Philadelphia, steady as ever, focused on what he can gather from the first two games and how to apply it. The tone fit him. Quiet. Direct. Confident in his preparation.

“I think there is information we can take from these two games,” Yamamoto said of the first two games of the series. “I also have plans that fit my own pitching, so I want to analyze both and prepare.” He kept circling back to the idea of blending scouting with feel. “There is a plan that is unique to me,” he added, “and I will get ready while studying everything.”

He smiled when asked about Roki Sasaki’s quick rise as a leverage reliever. “It is an unfamiliar role for him,” Yamamoto said, “but he is doing a very good job. He looks comfortable and he is playing with a good expression. I think it is great.” The appreciation came from a starter who knows the weight of October innings. “He has looked really good out there,” he said.

Last October still matters to him. The lessons, the rhythm, the way pressure moves through a game. “I learned a lot from last postseason,” Yamamoto said. “It helped me with calm on the mound and with being able to play my own game. The season is always one game at a time, but in the postseason there are more games you cannot drop, so preparation becomes even more important.” He spelled out the balance he wants on Wednesday. “Many things will happen on the mound,” he said. “I want to be calm in those moments. I value mental preparation, and of course physical preparation.”

He was asked about the splitter’s growing place in playoff baseball. He considered it and answered plainly. “The splitter is a very effective pitch against many batters,” Yamamoto said. “With other pitches, like a cutter, there are batters who hit it very well and you cannot use it as much. The splitter is a pitch you can throw to any batter and in any situation.” He connected that to the broader trend. “I think that is why you see the results over these last twenty years,” he said.

Nothing in his delivery is showy. The process is the point. “My confidence against Major League hitters has not changed a lot,” he said. “It is not that I found a single answer about what to do. It is that what I need to do has become clearer.” That clarity, he believes, shapes the way he will attack. “Understanding those things has helped me pitch my own game more,” Yamamoto said.

He also noted that Games 1 and 2 give him fresh live data on Philadelphia’s order and the ballpark tempo without getting pulled into the noise. “There is information we can gain,” he repeated. “I will prepare with that and with a plan that suits my pitching.” Asked again about what, exactly, he would carry into Game 3, he kept it simple. “Analyze both and prepare,” he said. “That is what I want to do.”

Yamamoto praised the way the Dodgers have handled the late innings so far, and he linked it to how he wants to set the tone early. “Sasaki is doing a very good job,” he said. “Everyone is playing their part.” It is the quiet kind of confidence that plays in October. “I want to be calm,” he said, “and I want to be ready.”

There were no bold declarations, just a pitcher who trusts his routine. “I learned a lot last year,” Yamamoto said. “That connects to how I stay composed on the mound and how I show my game. I want to take care of that.” He returns to Dodger Stadium with the series momentum and a plan built from two nights of scouting and a season’s worth of growth. “What I need to do is clearer,” he said. “Now I prepare.”

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