Dodgers bring in Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start NLDS Game 5

LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers wanted to keep their pitching options open ahead of Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the Padres on Friday night. They made their choice late Thursday evening.

With their season on the line at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles will start right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. With the Padres relying on Yu Darvish, Game 5, a winner-takes-all game, will have the added distinction of being the first MLB postseason matchup between two Japanese-born starting pitchers.

“I think if you look at Yoshinobu, he’s in his regular rest period,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in explaining his decision to make Yamamoto his Game 5 starter. “Jack [Flaherty]it would be a regular rest break for him, which would be even shorter. We don’t have the same bullpen availability that we do as far as up-downs and all that stuff. So I think I realized that Yoshinobu is here to be a top starter and that this is his time. I feel like we have really viable candidates behind him. But I firmly believe that we are all happy with the decision for him to start.

“I think it’s a great thing that we get to play each other in Game 5 of an NLDS,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie, hours before the match became official. “I am also very good friends with him on a personal level. And just for us to be able to go out and pitch on the same day, a playoff game, I think that means a lot.”

This is exactly the kind of game the Dodgers had in mind when they made a 12-year, $325 million signing for Yamamoto last winter, making the right-hander the highest-paid pitcher in major league history.

Yamamoto won three Eiji Sawamura Awards, the equivalent of the Cy Young Award in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. In his rookie season in the majors, Yamamoto went 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA in 18 starts. Despite missing a few months with a right shoulder injury, Yamamoto had a successful rookie season.

Yamamoto, who will join Dustin May, Walker Buehler, Fernando Valenzuela and Joe Black as just the fifth rookie in Dodgers franchise history to start a winner-take-all game.

However, the only team Yamamoto has struggled against is San Diego. Yamamoto’s first start in the majors came against the Padres in Seoul, South Korea, and the Padres responded by scoring five runs in one inning against him. In his second start against the Padres, Yamamoto allowed three runs over five innings.

Yamamoto’s start in NLDS Game 1 against the Padres was also unimpressive. He allowed five runs over three innings and didn’t fool any of the Padres’ batters.

The Dodgers thought Yamamoto might get the short end of the stick after his subpar start in Game 1. In the days since, Roberts said the 26-year-old has “cleaned things up” and focused on getting to grips with some revealing tendencies.

The 13.00 ERA that Yamamoto posted in nine innings against the Padres is easily his highest compared to any other team.

Because of Yamamoto’s struggles against the Padres, the Dodgers considered playing a bullpen game on Friday. The Dodgers used eight relievers to avoid elimination in Game 4 on Wednesday. It was always risky for the Dodgers and stressful for the replacements to follow the same formula. Right-hander Jack Flaherty was also in discussion, but if the Dodgers wanted to use a traditional starter, it was always going to be the one they invested big money in this winter.

“It’s hard to even really talk about the launch in Korea,” Roberts said. “I think as the course went on I think it was just a lack of control. If he didn’t know how to play baseball, he wasn’t really any good. But when he’s convincing and attacking hitters with his pitch mix, he’s as good as anyone.”

In Game 5, the Dodgers need Yamamoto to be as good as Darvish. Whoever wins, the pitchers will know they made baseball history.

“It obviously gives me great pleasure,” Darvish said of the influx of Japanese talent into the MLB. “I think the level of baseball in Japan has risen and it shows here too. So it’s really nice to see all these players that come here having success.”

MLB.com reporter/producer Sonja Chen contributed to this report.