LOS ANGELES -- After being the epitome of consistency through his first five starts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto had his first stumble of the 2026 campaign in Monday's series opener against the Marlins.
Yamamoto tossed five quality starts to open the season, but that streak came to an end when he didn't make it into the sixth inning for the first time. He gave up four runs (three earned) on five hits and four walks while striking out four across five innings.
While Yamamoto didn't put his team in the best position to win while he was on the mound, the Dodgers ensured he would no longer have another loss attached to his record by walking off the Marlins, 5-4, on a two-run single from Kyle Tucker.
"Tonight, I think even from the outset, I don't think that he was as sharp as we've seen for many starts," manager Dave Roberts said. "It's going to happen. And so it was a grindy one for him tonight."
In what ended up being a fitting beginning, Yamamoto's night started with Marlins leadoff hitter Jakob Marsee grinding out a walk on nine pitches. Marsee was quickly erased on a double play, and Yamamoto did not allow another baserunner until the third inning.
But from that point on, Yamamoto had to navigate through plenty of traffic. He stranded runners on second and third with two outs in the third inning, then gave up his first run of the night on an error in the fourth.
It wasn't until the fifth inning that Yamamoto had to pay for the free passes he had been giving up all night. He walked Marsee to open the frame, then got two outs before issuing another walk to Xavier Edwards. That brought him up to a season-high four on the night, and designated hitter Liam Hicks cashed in with a three-run blast into the right-field corner.
Hicks' home run came on a 1-2 splitter. It was the fourth two-strike hit Yamamoto gave up to the Marlins, tied for the fourth most in a single game in his career. Two of them were extra-base hits, tied for the most he's allowed in an outing.
"I think today, I had both sides, bad and good," Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. "Sometimes, I was able to control my pitches. On the other hand, I was not able to finish them off in the way I wanted."
Yamamoto had only thrown 87 pitches (56 strikes) after getting the third out in the fifth, but Roberts opted not to send him out for the sixth after the high-stress inning.
"If he can get [Hicks] on the ground, then it's a really good outing," Roberts said. "But I felt, for me, he wasn't sharp tonight, so I didn't feel the need to push him."
With the Dodgers looking to keep it a two-run game, they used their leverage arms earlier than they normally would. Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott pitched the sixth and seventh innings, and Edgardo Henriquez and Jake Eder kept the game scoreless in the eighth and ninth. After Tucker walked it off, Eder ended up earning his first career win against the team that drafted him.
"They did a fantastic job," Roberts said. "I thought Henriquez was great. I thought Tanner was really good. Eder coming in and giving us a clean inning was big. And then I thought Alex wasn't particularly sharp, but he found a way to put it to zero. And we needed every bit of it."