Dodgers Notes; Yoshinobu Yamamoto fights, Shohei Ohtani spark plug

In the second game of the Dodgers' Seoul Series against the Padres, Yoshinobu Yamamoto made his highly anticipated major league debut after signing a record-breaking 12-year, $325 million contract in the offseason.

Yamamoto received a rude welcome from San Diego to begin his big league career. He allowed five runs while logging just one inning of work, throwing 43 pitches in that single frame on March 21. His first-inning struggles against the Padres even lasted at Dodger Stadium, as the 25-year-old allowed two runs to score in his second career inning against San Diego on April 12 but managed to score them on just one more holding runs scored in his next four innings.

Yamamoto's next attempt at success against the Padres came Saturday, when he led the four-man starting rotation for this year's National League Division Series. Like the disastrous first inning of the debut — and Clayton Kershaw's implosion against the Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the NLDS last year — Yamamoto struggled again in the first inning early in the postseason.

Yamamoto allowed a single to Luis Arraez to start the game, repeating how the Dodgers' postseason run began the season before. Against Fernando Tatis Jr., Yamamoto hit a 1-0 splitter in the dirt, allowing Arraez to reach second base. A wild pitch on a slider allowed Arraez to reach third base, and a walk to Tatis put runners on the corners with no one out.

Yamamoto triggered a groundout by Jurickson Profar, but Arraez scored on the play, giving San Diego its first lead of the series. Yamamoto got the better of Manny Machado and quickly put him 2-0 behind. Yamamoto missed a slider from below the zone before leaving a hanging splitter in the inside half, where Machado turned it and drove it into the left field pavilion for a two-run home run to give San Diego a three-run lead.

Luckily for Yamamoto, those three runs were all he allowed in the first inning, less than half the runs the Dodgers allowed in the first inning of NLDS Game 1 last season. Yamamoto only managed three innings, allowing five runs against San Diego for the second time in three career starts. Yamamoto has now allowed 10 runs in three first innings against San Diego and has a career 11.00 ERA in nine innings in those starts.

Shohei Ohtani is headed to the postseason

The Dodgers had lagged on offense in last season's NLDS, with JD Martinez the only player to hit a home run as one of two extra bases scored by the Dodgers in all series. They averaged two runs per game in the three games and were a disappointing 4-for-17 with runners in scoring position.

Almost as quickly as the Padres stormed into an early lead, the Dodgers rallied in the bottom half of the second and quickly got two runners on base with no one out. Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas failed to collect either baserunner, leaving Shohei Ohtani as a potential tying run with two outs.

Ohtani failed to get an immediate strikeout in the bottom of the first inning and flied out to Jurickson Profar to start the game, but with the score tied at 2-1, Ohtani fired a fastball around center plate over the right field wall to tie the game The game marked his first-ever postseason hit and home run.

After averaging just two runs per game in the postseason a year ago, the Dodgers quickly scored three with a hit from Ohtani.

Ohtani had another opportunity to spark a Dodgers rally in the bottom of the fourth inning, with Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas reaching base with just one out. Ohtani was caught high and tight on a sinker by Padres reliever Adrián Morejón, breaking his bat, but it sailed over the head of Xander Bogaerts into center field to load the bases. A wild pitch and two-run single by Teoscar Hernández gave the Dodgers their first postseason lead since Game 4 of the 2022 NLDS against the same Padres.

The bottom half of the Dodgers line did its job and set the table for the centerpiece of the Dodgers line, trying to turn things around after the duo of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman went just 1-for-21 in their series loss to Arizona hit. Ohtani and Freeman combined to go 4-9 in Game 1, and although Betts extended his playoff streak without a hit, he reached base twice and scored the game-winning run on Hernández's single.

For a team in need of a spark plug, especially one at the top of the lineup, Ohtani made an immediate impact, assuring the Dodgers that he was not only destined to play in October, but was born to thrive in game-winning situations The lights are the brightest.