LOS ANGELES -- The Mets may have struck first, but Yoshinobu Yamamoto was largely in control the rest of the way.
In what went down as a thrilling pitchers' duel between Yamamoto and Mets starter Nolan McLean on Tuesday night, the Dodgers emerged victorious in a 2-1 contest at Dodger Stadium.
There was little margin for error in a game that was tied at 1 until the Dodgers took the lead on a Kyle Tucker RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning, and from there, lefty Alex Vesia was lights-out in the ninth, locking down the save with closer Edwin Díaz unavailable after throwing a bullpen session earlier in the day.
It was one of the Dodgers' most complete wins of the young season, securing a series victory over the Mets. But it all went back to Yamamoto, who set the tone with a season-high 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball.
"Tonight, it was kind of vintage Yamamoto," manager Dave Roberts said. "With just the command. The split, it was strike-to-ball. The breaking ball when he needed it. The misses were just near-misses.
"Yeah, this was special. And it’s kind of who he is right now.”
Yamamoto opened his start by twice missing out of the zone to Francisco Lindor, who then unloaded on a middle-middle four-seamer, parking it in the right-field seats. Lindor's leadoff blast ended a 20-inning scoreless streak for the Mets, but Yamamoto quickly set about starting a new one.
Starting with his second batter of the game, Yamamoto retired 20 straight Mets hitters, a streak that held until the seventh inning. The most stress he faced between Lindor's homer and then may have come in the fourth, when Freddie Freeman made a high throw to first base after snaring a Jorge Polanco grounder and Yamamoto had to make a well-timed leap to snag the ball and get his foot on the bag in time to make the out.
Yamamoto's shutdown streak came to an end when he surrendered a two-out double to Bo Bichette in the seventh inning. He followed that by issuing a walk to Francisco Alvarez, seemingly showing some fatigue. But following a mound visit with pitching coach Mark Prior, Yamamoto bore down and got Brett Baty to swing through a splitter for the final out of the inning.
That offering from Yamamoto was particularly nasty on Tuesday, accounting for 12 of his career-high-tying 23 whiffs.
"It's a pitch that with the way he throws his fastball, too, it's just got so much bite to it," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. "It's a hard one, and it looks like a fastball out of the hand and then it just drops."
Yamamoto came back out for the eighth inning and got two quick outs before giving up back-to-back singles, leaving runners on the corners for Blake Treinen, who stranded them both with an ABS-confirmed strikeout of Luis Robert Jr.
Yamamoto threw 104 pitches across 7 2/3 innings, striking out seven, walking one and allowing four hits to go toe-to-toe with McLean, who tossed seven innings of one-run ball.
From watching Justin Wrobleski's eight scoreless innings against the Mets the night before, Yamamoto was able to gain some insight into how to attack his opponents.
"I think the Mets' lineup was being really aggressive," he said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda.
Between Wrobleski and Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani will have plenty of reference material as he looks to keep the rotation's dominant run going in Wednesday's series finale.
After coming to the Major Leagues as one of Nippon Professional Baseball's most elite pitchers, Yamamoto broke out last year by finishing third in NL Cy Young Award voting, then authoring a legendary postseason performance that earned him World Series MVP honors.
Based on his track record and what he's done in his first two Major League seasons, the Dodgers believe that Yamamoto should rank right up there with reigning Cy Young winners Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal as the consensus best pitchers in baseball. Yamamoto may not have the hardware to show for it in the Majors just yet, but a performance like Tuesday's does a lot to help his case.
"We don’t have to look any further than October to see what he’s done," Roberts said. "I mean, the huge velocity of Skubal and Skenes and what they’ve done, and rightfully so. But our guy has done it in the biggest of moments, so he should certainly be in that conversation.”