Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched eight strong innings, but the Dodgers offense didn’t support him, falling to the Boston Red Sox 3-2 on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.
Yamamoto, who leads MLB averaging 6.68 innings per start, completed eight innings for the fourth time this season, tying Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara for the major league lead. Yamamoto struck out three and walked one, needing only 96 pitches to complete his eight frames. But he left trailing.
Advertisement
Ceddanne Rafaela, who homered in a three-hit game on Friday night, got the scoring started on Saturday with a solo home run with one out in the first inning, just three pitches into the game. He hit another solo shot in the third inning.
Those were the only hits off Yamamoto until the eighth inning, when Andruw Monasterio hit a leadoff ground rule double then scored two ground balls later.
Teoscar Hernández went out to right field for a two-run shot in the second inning for his second home run in three days, after hitting two home runs in his previous 28 games before that.
Hernández fouled a ball off his left foot in the fourth inning, and crumpled to the ground. After a long visit by manager Dave Roberts and assistant athletic director Yosuke Nakajima, Hernández remained in the game and singled, though he limped to first base.
Advertisement
Two batters later, Miguel Rojas fouled a ball off his left ankle and also dropped to the ground. Rojas stayed in after the obligatory visit by Roberts and Nakajima, and struck out. Both Rojas and Hernández remained in the game on defense in the top of the fifth inning. Rojas played three more innings before he was replaced at shortstop by Mookie Betts in the eighth inning.
Hernández, who also fouled a ball off his left foot in July 2025 and missed three games, had two hits in the game. The Dodgers had 10 hits as a team, but none in their four at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Freddie Freeman had three more hits, his fifth three-hit game in his last nine contests, Dating back to July 21, Freeman has 22 hits in his last 39 at-bats, and his career batting average, through 9,830 career plate appearances, is up to .30009385. Freeman’s 21 hits over his last nine games are the most by a Dodger since Shohei Ohtani had 25 hits in his superhuman stretch in September 2024.
The Dodgers only had one hit in three innings off the Red Sox bullpen, and Aroldis Chapman retired all three batters he faced to close out the game in the ninth.
Advertisement
Saturday particulars
Home runs: Teoscar Hernández (10); Ceddanne Rafaela 2 (14)
WP — Justin Slaten (2-4): 1 IP, 1 strikeout
LP — Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-7): 8 IP, 4 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
Sv — Aroldis Chapman (27): 1 IP, 1 strikeout
Up next
The homestand concludes with a nationally televised affair on Sunday evening (4:20 p.m.; NBC, Peacock), with Emmet Sheehan on the mound against yet another Red Sox lefty, Jake Bennett.
