Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave the Dodgers exactly the kind of start they needed. The offense never met him halfway.
Yamamoto worked eight innings Saturday night at Dodger Stadium, but Los Angeles still dropped a 3-2 decision to the Boston Red Sox. He struck out three, walked one and needed just 96 pitches to get through eight frames for the fourth time this season, matching Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara for the major league lead. Still, he was pitching from behind when he handed things over.
Boston jumped on him early. Ceddanne Rafaela, fresh off a three-hit night Friday, opened the scoring with a solo home run one out into the first inning, just three pitches into the game. He struck again in the third with another solo shot.
Those were the only hits Yamamoto allowed until the eighth, when Andruw Monasterio led off with a ground-rule double and scored two ground balls later.
The Dodgers answered in the second through Teoscar Hernández, who launched a two-run homer to right for his second in three days. That was a notable burst for Hernández, who had only two home runs across his previous 28 games before that run.
The night got messy physically in the fourth. Hernández fouled a ball off his left foot and went down hard.
After a lengthy visit from manager Dave Roberts and assistant athletic director Yosuke Nakajima, he stayed in the game, limped to first after singling and later remained on defense. Miguel Rojas followed with a foul ball off his left ankle, also hitting the ground before continuing after the mandatory visit.
He struck out, stayed in defensively in the fifth and played three more innings before Mookie Betts took over at shortstop in the eighth.
Hernández, who also fouled a ball off his left foot in July 2025 and missed three games, finished with two hits. As a team, the Dodgers collected 10 hits but went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position.
Freddie Freeman kept rolling with three more hits, giving him his fifth three-hit game in his last nine contests. Since July 21, Freeman has 22 hits in his last 39 at-bats, and his career batting average through 9,830 plate appearances is up to .30009385. His 21 hits over the last nine games are the most by a Dodger since Shohei Ohtani piled up 25 in his superhuman stretch in September 2024.
Los Angeles also couldn’t manufacture anything late. The Dodgers managed just one hit in three innings against the Boston bullpen, and Aroldis Chapman set down all three batters he faced in the ninth to finish it off.
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