A pitcher with such a glaringly high walk rate as Gavin Williams had last season and in his first start is someone who’s playing with fire—while that may eventually prove costly, one only gets to that point if they have the quality stuff to back it up, and that showed as the Guardians beat the Dodgers 4-1. The Guardians’ starting pitcher landed his four-seamer in the zone routinely enough to take full advantage of two outstanding breaking balls; his sweeper and curveball combined to induce 12 whiffs on 20 swings, and for seven innings, he imposed his will against this star-studded attack. Apart from Andy Pages, who seemed to have his number, Dodger hitters went 0 for 18 against Williams.
The Dodgers wouldn’t get an at-bat with a runner in scoring position until the sixth inning, the only frame in which they really challenged Williams. The bottom of the order put two on with no one out ahead of Shohei Ohtani. Only there was no room for even a bit of drama, as the reigning back-to-back NL MVP hit into a rally-killing double play and was subsequently followed by a lazy flyout from Kyle Tucker.
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This deflating offensive display overshadowed and ultimately squandered a good performance from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Robotic-esque is the term that comes to mind when watching Yamamoto, and it makes all the sense in the world that he would start the season in that manner. His fastball command wasn’t particularly great, only earning one called strike on the pitch, and that didn’t even stop him from delivering another ace-caliber performance. It wasn’t his fault; Williams was magnificent.
Yamamoto relied heavily on his cutter to left-handers and kept the Guardians at bay for his second quality start, allowing fewer than one base runner per inning. At the top of the third, Davis Schneeman hit a double and quickly came around to score after a throwing error from Will Smith as he tried to steal third. It wouldn’t have mattered much, considering the following hitter went deep as Gabriel Arias was waiting for a 3-1 ball and crushed it out to center. With a 35-degree launch angle, Arias made the most of this early start to be able to get it over the wall for a ball that maybe wouldn’t travel as much at night. Funny enough, facing a Chase DeLauter-less Guardians lineup, Yamamoto completely shut down the top five in their order. All of Cleveland’s four hits came from the bottom four in their lineup.
Before the Dodgers offense could get a crack at the Guardians bullpen to try and close this 2-0 deficit, Cleveland doubled their lead with their second two-run shot of the evening. Tanner Scott came in the game specifically to face José Ramírez and couldn’t put him away despite an 0-2 count, eventually coughing up a long ball down the left-field line. Repeating the scenario of the sixth inning, once again the Dodgers got a couple of men on ahead of Ohtani, but he was quickly dismissed by the left-hander Eric Sabrowski, striking out on three pitches. A solo shot from Freddie Freeman with two outs in the ninth simply helped the Dodgers avoid the shutout.
Wednesday particulars
Home runs: Gabriel Arias (1), José Ramírez (1) & Freddie Freeman (1)
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WP — Gavin Williams (1-1): 6 IP, 1 hit, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts
LP — Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1-1): 6 IP, 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts
Up next
The Dodgers hit the road for the first time in 2026, with their first stop in Washington for the Nationals’ home opener. It’ll be a very early start for the West Coasters, as these two teams meet up on Friday at 10:05 AM (PT). While the Dodgers have yet to announce their starter, if they follow this early-season schedule, it’ll be Emmet Sheehan taking the mound.
