Yamamoto cranks up fastball to stifle Yanks’ bats
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — The 10th pitch Yoshinobu Yamamoto fired from Yankee Stadium on Friday night traveled 98 mph. It triggered a milestone, marking the fastest pitch Yamamoto had thrown since leaving Japan to join the Los Angeles Dodgers last offseason.
It also set a tone.
Yamamoto, pitching against the team that nearly signed him in free agency, blanked the Juan Soto-less New York Yankees through seven innings and threw harder than ever, comfortably sitting at around 97 mph with a fastball that had been about two ticks slower through his first dozen major league starts. He didn’t get the win — the Dodgers didn’t break through until the 11th inning, when Teoscar Hernandez‘s two-run double broke a scoreless tie and led to a 2-1 victory — but he showed something bigger.
“You could just see it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Yamamoto. “He felt it. He knew we needed it, and it brought out the best in him. I can’t say enough about his effort tonight.”
The Dodgers, coming off a demoralizing series loss to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates and struggling offensively for about three weeks, have seen Yamamoto evolve through his first two-plus months in the major leagues.
An ugly debut from South Korea led to a seven-start stretch in which he posted a 1.76 ERA. Along the way, Yamamoto introduced a two-seamer and a cutter as weapons against right-handed hitters. He got hit around near the end of May, giving up 10 runs on 18 hits in 17 innings. But he bounced back with six innings of one-run ball against the Colorado Rockies on the first day of June, then turned in his finest start Friday against a far superior lineup, limiting the Yankees to four baserunners while striking out seven in the opener of this highly anticipated weekend series.
His ERA is down to 3.00.
“The things he did in Japan, he showed today,” Hernandez said. “He didn’t win three MVPs and three Cy Youngs just because he’s Yoshinobu. He’s a good pitcher, and he showed it today.”
Most encouraging, though, was that he did it largely on the strength of his four-seam fastball — the pitch that helped him garner a record-setting 12-year, $325 million contract in December, but one that had been hit particularly hard early on this season. Yamamoto threw a season-high 56 four-seam fastballs Friday and watched the Yankees produce one hit against them. Six were thrown at 98 mph, further bolstering his dynamic curveball and splitter. Twenty-one others touched 97, a velocity he had reached just three times before.
Yamamoto, speaking through an interpreter, said the uptick was a byproduct of his mechanics “working very well today,” though he didn’t specify any changes. Roberts alluded to the adrenaline of pitching at Yankee Stadium, which drew a season-high 48,048 fans, as an additional reason. But Roberts also believes Yamamoto can pitch at those velocities if his mechanics are sound and his delivery is repeatable.
“He signed the deal he did for a reason — he’s a great pitcher,” said Aaron Judge, who produced the Yankees’ only run with a one-out single in the bottom of the 11th. “Besides having elite stuff, he’s got great command. I think that’s what we really noticed today was we’d get into hitter’s counts and he still wouldn’t give in to the heart of the plate. He really lived on the edges and could work any pitch at any time. That curveball, splitter and that good heater that ran up to 97, 98 tonight. He kept guys off balance, kept us on the ground, and we couldn’t get anything in the air.”
The Yankees were once considered among the favorites to land Yamamoto, along with the Dodgers and the crosstown-rival New York Mets. They staged meetings with him on both coasts and got up to $300 million with their offer before watching him sign with a Dodgers team that had recently added countryman Shohei Ohtani, prompting an eventual Yankees pivot to Marcus Stroman.
On Friday, they got a firsthand look at what they missed.
“The Yankees are a great team, and I appreciate their interest in me during the negotiation, like with some of the teams I negotiated with and had a meeting with,” Yamamoto said. “All the teams were great, and I appreciate them equally. But when I face them, it’s just a normal game.”
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Adam Rittenberg
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he feels “healthy and vibrant” after returning to the field for preseason practices after undergoing surgery to remove his bladder after a cancerous tumor was found.
Sanders, 57, said he has been walking at least a mile around campus following Colorado’s practices, which began last week. He was away from the team for the late spring and early summer following the surgery in May. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, said July 30 that Sanders, who lost about 25 pounds during his recovery, is “cured of cancer.”
“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant, I’m my old self,” Sanders said. “I’m loving life right now. I’m trying my best to live to the fullest, considering what transpired.”
Sanders credited Colorado’s assistant coaches and support staff for overseeing the program during his absence. The Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his third season as Buffaloes coach this fall.
“They’ve given me tremendous comfort,” Sanders said. “I never had to call 100 times and check on the house, because I felt like the house is going to be OK. That’s why you try your best to hire correct, so you don’t have to check on the house night and day. They did a good job, especially strength and conditioning.”
Colorado improved from four to nine wins in Sanders’ second season, but the team loses Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, as well as record-setting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes have an influx of new players, including quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, who are competing for the starting job, as well as new staff members such as Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who is coaching the Buffaloes’ running backs.
Despite the changes and his own health challenges, Deion Sanders expects Colorado to continue ascending. The Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 when they host Georgia Tech.
“The next phase is we’re going to win differently, but we’re going to win,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, but it’s going to be hell during the game, because we want to be physical and we want to run the heck out of the football.”
Sanders said it will feel “a little weird, a little strange” to not be coaching Shedeur when the quarterback starts his first NFL preseason game for the Cleveland Browns on Friday night at Carolina. Deion Sanders said he and Shedeur had spoken several times Friday morning. Despite being projected as a top quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round.
“A lot of people are approaching it like a preseason game, he’s approaching like a game, and that’s how he’s always approached everything, to prepare and approach it like this is it,” Deion Sanders said. “He’s thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. He don’t get covered in, you know, all the rhetoric in the media.
“Some of the stuff is just ignorant. Some of it is really adolescent, he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”
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Adam Rittenberg
LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier aggravated the patellar tendinitis he has been dealing with in his knee but will not miss any significant time, coach Brian Kelly said Friday.
Kelly dropped in ahead of a news conference Friday with offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to tell reporters that Nussmeier did not suffer a severe knee injury or even a new one. According to Kelly, Nussmeier has chronic tendinitis in his knee and “probably just planted the wrong way” during Wednesday’s practice.
Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing yards (4,052) last season, his first as LSU’s starter, and projects as an NFL first-round draft pick in 2026.
“It’s not torn, there’s no fraying, there’s none of that,” Kelly said. “This is preexisting. … There’s nothing to really see on film with it, but it pissed it off. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”
Kelly said Nussmeier’s injury ranks 1.5 out of 10 in terms of severity. Asked whether it’s the right or left knee, Kelly said he didn’t know, adding, “It’s not a serious injury. Guys are dealing with tendinitis virtually every day in life.”
LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson.
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