LOS ANGELES -- Maybe all it took for the Dodgers to get back to their winning ways was a return to Chavez Ravine.
After losing four of six on their road trip, the Dodgers notched their 10th consecutive home win -- dating back to Game 2 of last season¡¯s National League Championship Series -- in a 3-0 victory over the Cubs at Dodger Stadium.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto carried the load for most of the game, striking out nine Cubs batters (one shy of his career high, set two weeks ago against Detroit) with just one walk and two hits on 103 pitches over six scoreless innings. His ERA on the season is now 1.23.
¡°Tonight was a really good ballgame, clean ballgame,¡± manager Dave Roberts said. ¡°Obviously, Yoshi was very good. Set the tone, filling up the strike zone, getting the swing and miss, a lot of punchouts. The split was really good. Fastball really good. Mixed in some curveballs when he needed to keep them off-balance, which was great. Efficient. Getting through six was huge.¡±
Yamamoto¡¯s most effective pitch on Friday was his splitter, which accounted for 30 percent of his pitches thrown. While his average velocity on it at 90.9 mph was a tick down from his usual mark of 91.8 mph, that didn¡¯t keep Cubs hitters from whiffing on it.
Out of Yamamoto¡¯s 11 swings and misses, seven were on his splitter.
¡°Last year, the catcher did call many [splitters], but I was not able to control it. So there was a tendency of falling behind,¡± Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. ¡°But this year, I¡¯m feeling good with the splitter, so that¡¯s why the usage was high.¡±
Then in the bottom of the sixth, the Dodgers¡¯ bats came alive.
Teoscar Hern¨¢ndez singled on a line drive to left field. Freddie Freeman, making his return from a 10-day injured list stint after aggravating his surgically repaired right ankle, moved Hern¨¢ndez into scoring position two pitches later after getting hit by a sinker that got away from Cubs starter Matthew Boyd.
Two more pitches after that, Tommy Edman brought them home. He reached down on a changeup below the strike zone and sent it flying a Statcast-projected 423 feet into the Left Field Pavilion for a three-run home run to break the deadlock.
¡°I¡¯m really not trying to hit homers,¡± Edman said. ¡°Just more a side result of putting in some good work in the cage, and I think just also having a better plan at the plate. Doing my preparation and knowing how I'm trying to attack a pitcher. So just kind of a variety of things, but that's kind of just a result. It¡¯s not something I¡¯m trying to do.¡±
The Dodgers bullpen kept Yamamoto¡¯s momentum going with three scoreless, hitless frames from Kirby Yates, Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott. Yates struck out two of the three batters he faced, while Treinen also retired the side in order. Scott got the save on 16 pitches.
For Roberts, Yamamoto¡¯s length was crucial for giving the Dodgers¡¯ bullpen a much-needed reprieve at the outset of this six-game homestand with no days off.
¡°In the last week, the starting pitching has been a little wavery,¡± Roberts said. ¡°And so to kind of reset our ¡¯pen off an off-day, five more days for another off-day, we're sort of reset right now. And just giving us length every single time out has been huge.¡±