The Los Angeles Dodgers are currently down 2-0 in the National League Championship Series (NLCS) following a 7-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, during which pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a challenging outing. Yamamoto was removed from the game after 2 ⅔ innings, having thrown 75 pitches and allowing four hits, three earned runs, two walks, and one strikeout.
After the game, Yamamoto expressed uncertainty about his performance, stating, "I don’t know the exact reason yet, I need to check the videos on what happened today. I wanted to get through the third inning but couldn’t."
In the third inning, Christian Yelich's two-run single gave the Brewers a 3-2 lead, marking a pivotal moment in the game. Prior to Yelich's at-bat, the Brewers had made Yamamoto work hard, forcing him to throw 22 pitches against batters David Hamilton, Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, and William Contreras. Turang, who was down 0-2 in the count, managed to draw a walk after seeing four consecutive pitches.
Yamamoto faced a significant challenge against Jake Bauers, who saw a total of 17 pitches in two at-bats against the Dodgers pitcher, including a 12-pitch at-bat in the third inning. Yamamoto commented, "I was trying to work on the edge of the zone, some pitches were really good. He just stayed on it. He did a good job."
Bauers eventually walked, loading the bases for Yelich. Following Yamamoto's exit, Alex Vesia entered the game and struck out Garrett Mitchell. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts later stated during a live interview that he felt it was necessary to stop the damage at that point.
The Dodgers managed to score three runs after Yamamoto left the game, but it was not enough to overcome the Brewers, who added two more runs in the eighth inning from RBI singles by Hamilton and Bauers, finalizing the score at 7-4.