LOS ANGELES — The other shoe dropped today, and Dodgers made it official. Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the ball Wednesday for Game 2 of the Wild Card Round. If the series goes the distance, all signs point to Shohei Ohtani lining up for a potential Game 3. That’s about as strong a one-two (or rather two-three) punch as you can ask for in a three-game set.
Yamamoto against the Reds is not a mystery. We saw it on July 28 in Cincinnati and it was clinic stuff. Seven innings. Four hits. One run. Nine strikeouts. He piled up whiffs with the splitter and dotted heaters all night. After a bumpy first inning, Yoshi settled in and took over the game. The Reds got traffic but not much else.
That outing matters for Wednesday. Cincinnati’s core likes to hunt fastballs early. Yamamoto’s first pitch strike game can flip those counts. When he’s ahead, the split plays like a trap door and the cutter keeps lefties honest. If the Reds chase the split below the knees, it’s a long night for them. If they lay off, he has shown he can still land the four-seamer at the top and steal called strikes.
There are a few matchups to watch. Elly De La Cruz can do damage on anything elevated, so keeping him on the ground is key. Spencer Steer is their grinder in the middle. Don’t let him extend innings with two outs. Noelvi Marte has pop to the big part of the park, but he chased splitters in July and that pattern is on the table again.
The Dodgers know how they want to support Yamamoto. Clean defense. No extra 90s. Convert double plays when the chance shows up. The bullpen is lined up to cover the last six to nine outs with swing and miss options. If the starter hands over a lead, Dave Roberts has choices and recent results to trust.
On the other side, Cincinnati will try to flip the script with early ambush swings and pressure on the bases. Yamamoto’s hold times have improved through the season. Will Smith is on the IL, but Roberts hinted at the possibility of his return to active status for the series. Either way, Cincinnati loves to run, and LA backstops need to be vigilant. Control the run game and you cut off one of the Reds’ best stress points.
Offensively, the Dodgers do not need a crooked number in the first. They need quality at bats that make the Reds’ starter (likely Nick Lodolo in Game 2) throw strikes. Work counts. Make them show the breaking ball. Take your walk and move the line.
The nice part about the plan is the safety net. If Game 3 is necessary, Ohtani waiting is a real weapon. He finally picked up his first win as a Dodger starter against the Reds in late August (that was the 19-strikeout game by LA pitchers) and looked more in rhythm as that game went on. The fastball had life. The breaking ball got chase. That version of Ohtani changes the math in a winner-take-all.
For now, it’s Yamamoto Day on Wednesday, hopefully following up a Blake Snell win in Game One. Short memory if something weird happens in the first. Attack the zone. Let the splitty do its thing. And maybe if the offense could support their ace like they finally did in Seattle over the weekend, that would be cool, too. If Wednesday looks anything like July 28, the series tilts hard toward Los Angeles and Ohtani becomes the luxury plan instead of the lifeline. That is exactly where the Dodgers want to be.
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