Yamamoto shakes off chaotic 1st inning in quality 7-inning start

SAN FRANCISCO -- First impressions can make a lasting impact, and the Dodgers dug themselves into a hole they were unable to emerge from early in their first meeting of the year with their longtime rivals.

The Giants took advantage of a sloppy Dodgers defense behind a less-than-sharp Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the first inning, driving in three runs on four hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly while sending eight hitters to the plate. Over the six innings that followed, though, the Giants could hardly touch Yamamoto.

Yamamoto rebounded from a rocky first inning to record a quality start, striking out seven across seven innings in Tuesday night's series opener against the Giants at Oracle Park. He did everything to keep his team in the game short of providing his own run support, which was what the Dodgers needed most, as they failed to come back from the early deficit, falling 3-1.

"I think it shows why he's the staff ace," manager Dave Roberts said. "I thought early on he wasn't sharp. The curveball, I thought the execution wasn't really good. We could have probably made a couple plays behind him, but for him to manage the pitch count, give up three runs and then go seven innings and give us a chance to win the game, says a lot about him."

Yamamoto's start against the Dodgers' longtime rivals began with Giants leadoff hitter Willy Adames hitting a sharp grounder to shortstop Hyeseong Kim. Kim may have had a play at first, but his throw veered well wide of the bag, allowing Adames to advance to second on what was ruled an infield single and a throwing error.

From there, three more Giants reached before Yamamoto recorded an out. Rafael Devers opened the scoring with an RBI single. Casey Schmitt lifted a fly ball to left-center, where left fielder Teoscar Hernández collided with center fielder Alex Call. Call came up with the ball, but the Giants tacked on another run on a sacrifice fly. Jung Hoo Lee drove in a third run on a single.

In Yamamoto's first four starts, he had allowed no more than two runs in each outing, so he was already at a season high after just one inning on the Oracle Park mound. But from the second inning on, he allowed no more damage.

"It was kind of like a very regrettable start of the game," Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. "But after the first inning, I was trying to take it one hitter at a time, and I was focusing on executing my pitches."

Just three Giants reached base against Yamamoto after the first inning. He walked Patrick Bailey in the fifth, breaking up a streak of 11 straight batters retired. He later gave up back-to-back two-out singles to Lee and Heliot Ramos following a brief but heavy downpour in the sixth. That inning looked like San Francisco's best chance to get something going against Yamamoto, but Lee was thrown out at home on an 8-4-2 relay while attempting to score on Ramos' knock.

Yamamoto finished his outing by striking out the side in the seventh inning. He not only rebounded from a tough first inning, but gave the Dodgers his second-longest start of the season. Though he was able to save the bullpen -- left-hander Tanner Scott was the only other Dodger who pitched in the opener -- Yamamoto did not take much solace in how he ended the outing because of how it began.

"I think today's game was about the first inning," Yamamoto said. "I wanted to minimize the damage, but I was not able to do that."

The first inning may have set a bad tone in the opener, but the Dodgers feel good about how they're set up for the rest of the series. They have Shohei Ohtani -- who tied Shawn Green for the longest on-base streak in L.A. Dodgers history at 53 games -- starting next, followed by Tyler Glasnow in the finale. Their bullpen is well-rested. And although they failed to cash in at the plate, they created opportunities.

"It's certainly not the way you want to start the series," Roberts said. "But looking at how we were in the game still. Yamamoto, Tanner, what they did to throw up some zeros after that first inning, I thought was great. I thought we kept fighting, just couldn't come through with that big hit."