BALTIMORE — Tanner Scott is right. Baseball must not like him right now.
Even a near no-hitter wasn’t enough to lift the Dodgers out of the doldrums they have sunk into. Yoshinobu Yamamoto came up one out short of pitching a no-hitter and the Dodgers couldn’t get an out with him, losing for the fifth consecutive game to a last-place team when Scott gave up a walkoff hit for the second night in a row. This time, Emmanuel Rivera’s two-run single gave the Baltimore Orioles a 4-3 victory Saturday night.
Yamamoto gave up a solo home run to Jackson Holliday with two outs in the ninth inning to end his bid to throw the 24th no-hitter in franchise history and the Dodgers’ first since Walker Buehler combined with three relievers to no-hit the San Diego Padres in Monterrey, Mexico, on May 4, 2018.
Yamamoto would have been the third Japanese-born pitcher to pitch a no-hitter in MLB, joining Hideo Nomo, who threw two (one with the Dodgers in 1996 and one with the Boston Red Sox in 2001) and Hisashi Iwakuma with the Seattle Mariners (in 2015). Oddly, three of those four no-hitters came against the Orioles. Nomo’s no-hitter with the Dodgers came against the Colorado Rockies.
Yamamoto put his foot down from the start. He retired the first six Orioles batters in order but walked back-to-back hitters to start the third inning, throwing a wild pitch along the way.
Not a problem. He struck out Coby Mayo with a curveball, then got Holliday to bounce into an inning-ending double play.
The next 17 Orioles went down in order before Holliday got a 2-and-1 cutter on the inside edge of the strike zone. It was the 112th pitch of the night for Yamamoto (his MLB career-high by two) and his only mistake. Holliday sent a fly ball to right field that hit the top of the wall for a homer.
Yamamoto struck out 10 and got 20 swings-and-misses in all – nine on a four-seam fastball that had added life, averaging 96.6 mph (up from a season average of 95.2 mph).
Things got messy after he left. Blake Treinen replaced Yamamoto with one out to get – and couldn’t get it. After Holliday’s home run, Treinen came in and gave up a double to Jeremiah Jackson, hit Gunnar Henderson with a pitch and walked Ryan Mountcastle to load the bases and Colton Cowser to force in a run.
That forced Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to bring in Tanner Scott, who gave up a walkoff home run with two outs in the ninth inning for Friday night’s loss.
Scott’s third pitch was stroked into center field by Rivera to end the game.