NEW YORK — If you didn’t know any better, you would’ve thought the World Series started Friday night at Yankee Stadium. The crowd was raucous and bordering on unhinged (that’s a compliment), celebrities packed the posh seats behind home plate, and more television networks broadcast the game in the United States and Japan than I care to count. It’s only June 7, but it’s Dodgers vs. Yankees in New York for the first time since 2016, and it is a Very Big Deal.
“I think this is one of those series in the regular season that is going to have that extra juice,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before Friday’s game. “You get these games, series, every now and then during the regular season, whether it’s a great interleague series — Yankees-Dodgers — at different times a big series with Boston, to London, Field of Dreams. There’s little moments, games in a season that have a little extra to it. There’s a lot more eyeballs here. Friday night, summer’s upon us, Yankee Stadium’s gonna be rocking. It’s gonna feel bigger.”
Friday’s game befit the atmosphere. The Yankees and Dodgers traded zeroes for 10 innings — Dodgers fans were well-represented in the Bronx and there were plenty of cheers for both teams after big outs were recorded — before Teoscar Hernández doubled in two runs in the top of the 11th, giving Los Angeles the lead. The Dodgers eventually won the game 2-1 (box score).
“It was a great ballgame,” Boone said after the loss. “You love when you’re scoring and doing that, but it’s one of those — man there was a lot of good pitching, good plays, tough at-bats. Both sides had a couple opportunities to break through, couldn’t. Just a very well-pitched game, both sides.”
The win improves the Dodgers to 40-25 and dropped the Yankees to 45-20, which is still the best record in baseball. Here are three takeaways from Friday night’s Yankees vs. Dodgers series-opener in Yankee Stadium.
Yamamoto was razor sharp
Twelve starts into his MLB career, Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been almost everything the Dodgers expected when they gave inked him to a $325 million pact over the winter. He took a 3.32 ERA into Friday night — that includes his disastrous five-run, one-out showing in the Seoul Series — and turned in his best start with Los Angeles, holding the Yankees to two hits in seven shutout innings.
“I was trying to be calm and go one inning by one inning. I was able to do that pretty well today,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter after the game. “… I was locked in. My mechanics were really good today.”
The surest sign Yamamoto was pumped up to face the team with baseball’s best record: 29 of his 106 pitches registered at 97.0 mph or better. In his first 12 starts, Yamamoto threw only three pitches — three! — at 97 mph. His 97.0 mph average fastball Friday was 1.7 mph higher than his season average. He showed similar velocity upticks with his splitter and slider as well.
The Yankees were among the teams to pursue Yamamoto aggressively over the winter — their 10-year, $300 million offer was the largest average annual value on the table — so, yeah, they thought he was the real deal as well, and he showed it Friday. Yamamoto was brilliant. He was and has been every bit the ace the Dodgers gave him the largest pitching contract ever to be.
New York’s pitching castoffs were outstanding
Friday was a game of contrasts. The Dodgers sent their high-priced ace to the mound and the Yankees countered with a parade of pitchers who were cast off by other organizations. Before the automatic runner came into play in extra innings, five Yankees pitchers held the Dodgers to three hits and three walks in the first nine innings of the game. Look at this list:
Cody Poteet (4 2/3 scoreless innings): Signed to a one-year contract over the winter after spending most of 2022 and 2023 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery with the Marlins and Royals. He’s filling in for the injured Clarke Schmidt.
Victor González (2/3 scoreless innings): Acquired in a minor trade with the Dodgers in December. Los Angeles needed to clear a 40-man roster spot for Shohei Ohtani and trading González is how they opened it. The two met in the fifth inning and González got Ohtani to ground out to first base with two runners on and two outs.
Michael Tonkin (1 2/3 scoreless innings): A waiver claim already on his third team in 2024 (Mets to Twins back to Mets to Yankees). Tonkin got Mookie Betts to ground out to first base with a runner at second base to end the seventh inning and let out a roar. Both sides played with a lot of emotion.
Caleb Ferguson (1 scoreless inning): Another former Dodger. Los Angeles needed to open bullpen space after re-signing Ryan Brasier and Ferguson, who will become a free agent after the season, was the roster casualty. He retired Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith in the eighth.
Clay Holmes (1 scoreless inning): The Yankees landed Holmes in a minor trade with the Pirates at the 2021 deadline and he has since emerged as one of the best relievers in the game. With Pittsburgh, he had a 5.57 ERA in 119 2/3 innings. With the Yankees, Holmes has a 2.32 ERA in 183 innings. He’s been brilliant in pinstripes.
The Yankees lost Friday’s game but the pitching was not the issue. Those five guys were discarded by other organizations and acquired in very minor trades, and they’ve combined to give the Yankees 99 2/3 innings of 2.35 ERA ball in 2024. New York has become one of the best in the business at coaching up pitchers and that ability was on full display Friday.
Soto was a decoy
For the Yankees, more important than Friday’s result is the Juan Soto news. Soto has inflammation in his forearm and is day-to-day. He dealt with discomfort in the forearm over the last week or so and exited Thursday’s game after a lengthy rain delay, then went for tests Friday. All things considered, inflammation is good news. It could have been something much worse.
“Good news,” Boone said about Soto’s injury before Friday’s game. “Obviously, waiting on those results — I think grand scheme of things, we got some good news. Just inflammation in there. We’ll start some medicine and right now treat him as day-to-day.”
Despite the diagnosis, Soto was spotted standing at the top of the dugout steps holding a bat several times throughout the game. Boone indicated Soto could be available to pinch-hit as soon as Friday night — “He may even be an option late in the game. Who knows?” he said Friday afternoon — and he certainly looked ready to pinch-hit multiple times.
Soto never did pinch-hit even though there were several opportunities to do so. He was a decoy the entire night. Boone confirmed it after the game. He was someone to make the Dodgers think extra hard about their bullpen usage. And given where we are in the season — it’s June 7 — it’s smart not to push Soto. The last thing the Yankees need is him making the forearm injury worse.
“He was just, I think, feeling the moment there a little bit,” Boone said about Soto standing on the top step with a bat.
As Boone told it, there’s a chance Soto could play sometime this weekend. It depends how he feels in the coming hours and days. It’s too bad. Friday night was a great game with an electric atmosphere. It would be great to have Soto on the field and both teams close to full strength. He is one of the sport’s great showmans.
Up next
This three-game weekend series continues with the middle game Saturday night. Lefty Nestor Cortes (3-4, 3.46 ERA) and righty Gavin Stone (6-2, 2.90 ERA) are the scheduled starting pitchers. Nasty Nestor’s home/road splits this season are extreme: 1.12 ERA and 6.7 innings per start at Yankee Stadium, and a 6.17 ERA and 5.0 innings per start on the road. The Yankees will hope that trend continues as they look to even up the series Saturday.
