Yoshinobu Yamamoto was one pitch away from a clean first inning Monday night.

Instead, it devolved into a sudden, unstoppable nightmare.

In the shortest start of his MLB career, and in an outing that somehow rivaled his disastrous debut in the majors last March in South Korea, Yamamoto missed one chance after the next to escape the bottom of the first against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field — an inning which poor defense, questionable pitch calling and bad batted ball luck all also contributed to his 41-pitch collapse.

By the time it was all over, the Brewers were leading by five runs, manager Dave Roberts was summoning a reliever just two outs into the game, and the Dodgers were well on their way to a fourth consecutive defeat, never coming close to a comeback in a 9-1 loss to open a six-game road trip.

Read more:How Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto 'elevated his game to another level' in his second year

“This is a time,” Roberts said afterward, as the Dodgers matched their longest losing streak of the season, “for us to kind of look at ourselves and be better.”

They certainly won’t want to look back on what transpired in the first inning Monday night.

Sal Frelick hammered a hanging curveball for a leadoff double. William Contreras drew a walk when Yamamoto couldn’t locate his splitter near the zone. And the two outs that followed — a fly ball from Jackson Chourio and grounder from Christian Yelich — proved to be only a temporary reprieve.

The pivotal moment came during the next at-bat when newly acquired Brewers slugger Andrew Vaughn came to the plate in his first game with the team. He got three straight sliders from Yamamoto to start, fanning on the first before laying off two that missed the zone next. Then, after a called strike on a fastball at the knees evened the count 2-and-2, catcher Will Smith dialed up another curveball from Yamamoto.

“I think we went to the well one too many times with the slider,” Roberts said, later adding: “He hits in-zone spin really well, medium-speed. And he sees four of them in an at-bat.”

Yamamoto’s execution of the pitch didn’t help.

What was supposed to be down and on the outside corner instead fluttered up and above the zone. What could have been a whiff to end the inning instead ended with Vaughn connecting on a mighty upper-cut swing. And what had been a scoreless early ballgame suddenly became a 3-0 Brewers lead, with Vaughn going deep to left to christen his Brewers debut with a home run.

“I think the [first] three sliders I threw were located pretty good,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “But that last one, I elevated it. It got away from me.”

Somehow, the inning would only get worse from there.

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Despite entering the night coming off a first-career All-Star selection, and leading the majors in road ERA at 1.57, Yamamoto failed to settle down.

In a 1-and-2 count against Isaac Collins, he left a fastball down the middle that was hammered for a single. After falling behind 3-and-0 to Brice Turang, Yamamoto worked the count full only to miss badly with a fastball and issue an inning-extending walk. Suddenly, his pitch count was climbing out of control. And with the Dodgers stuck on two outs in the inning, Roberts began to get the bullpen to stir.

“My tempo wasn’t really good, I couldn’t get my rhythm,” said Yamamoto, whose overall ERA on the season rose to 2.77. “That was on me.”

Yamamoto appeared to finally find an escape route against Caleb Durbin, inducing a grounder with a splitter that was hit straight to shortstop Mookie Betts. But, in a rare defensive lapse at his new position, Betts spiked a throw to first that Freddie Freeman couldn’t corral. Collins came racing around from second to score. The inning stayed alive when it once again should’ve ended.

Read more:Clayton Kershaw grateful for ‘weird but cool’ All-Star selection as ‘Legend Pick’

“I can't make an error right there,” said Betts, who has had a couple misplays in recent weeks after making just one error in a 61-game stretch from mid-April to late June. “Regardless of the situation, I need to make that play."

Yamamoto’s leash finally ran out on pitch 41, when Andruw Monasterio lobbed a bloop RBI single down the right-field line in the next at-bat. As another run scored, Roberts came walking out of the dugout to give the team’s season-long ace an unimaginably early hook.

“He’s usually pretty good about finding his way out of it, or minimizing some damage to kind of reset and get back out there and give us a little bit more length,” Roberts said of Yamamoto. “But today it just didn’t happen.”

The two teams played the final eight innings. But the result already seemed well in hand.

The Dodgers’ lineup was shorthanded, missing Teoscar Hernández with a bruised foot and Tommy Edman with a pinky toe fracture (both are expected back in the lineup by Wednesday). Before the game, Kiké Hernández was also put on the injured list with an elbow injury that had been bothering him since he made an awkward slide in Cleveland in late May, and flared up to the point of requiring a cortisone shot this past weekend. Not to be forgotten, Max Muncy also remains sidelined by his bum knee.

In their places the Dodgers started James Outman in center field (who was called up from triple A pregame), Miguel Rojas at third base and Hyeseong Kim at second against Brewers All-Star right-hander Freddy Peralta.

The outcome was predictable: Six innings of shutout ball in which the Dodgers managed only five hits, one walk and struck out seven times.

“We got to pitch better, we got to defend better, we got to take more competitive at-bats,” Roberts said. “And we’re just not doing any of those things right now.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Craziness, good and bad all rolled into Phillies loss to Giants originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

SAN FRANCISCO – On a typically chilly summer night in the Bay Area, it was hoped that there wouldn’t be much action going on in the Phillies bullpen. Not that the work wouldn’t have kept the relievers warm, with Taijuan Walker once again thrusting into the starter’s role for Tuesday’s game in which he will see limited innings.

With snubbed All-Star Cristopher Sánchez on the mound, that didn’t appear to be an imminent problem against the San Francisco Giants on Monday. But when Sánchez was already at 59 thrown pitches through three innings, and had to continuously work out of precarious situations, many had to wonder what the immediate future may hold for the pitching staff.

In a game filled with defensive miscues, a ball careening off an infield cutout for a double, a run-saving ground-rule double, a run scoring on a wild pitch and a bunch of umpire missed calls, Sánchez pushed all that aside and settled in for a gutty, grinding and outstanding performance through seven innings. Erratic pitching from Orion Kerkering and very questionable calls from the home plate umpire led to a 3-1 loss for the Phillies in the opener of a six-game road trip.

“In the second inning, where they loaded the bases, he did a great job getting out of that with just one run,” said manager Rob Thomson. “Just getting behind guys early. I thought he was really good and battled through a couple of rough jams and I didn’t think there were that many balls hit hard off him. He got a lot of swings and misses, a lot of soft contact, ground balls. I thought he did a great job getting through seven.”

Sánchez allowed just one run in the second, though he gave up consecutive singles and a walk to begin the inning. A strikeout, a run-scoring fielders’ choice and a groundout ended what could have been worse.

Then in the third, a fly ball to short right with one out somehow landed between an incoming Nick Castellanos and an outgoing Bryson Stott. An out later, Matt Chapman hit a rocket to center that turned Brandon Marsh around twice before bouncing over the shortest part of the outfield wall for a ground-rule double. With runners on second and third, Sánchez struck out Wilmer Flores to end that threat. 

From there he settled into the form that should have been All-Star rewarded, retiring 12 of the next 15 batters he faced, racking up 105 pitches and saving strain on a bullpen that will almost certainly have just that on Tuesday.

But the Phillies offense couldn’t reward him with much support, as the lone run they scraped across came when Bryson Stott led off the inning with a double, moved to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch by starter Landen Roupp. 

“I think it went well,” said Sánchez. “I was sticking to the plan that we had to attack hitters early on. It was teamwork with J.T. (Realmuto) tonight, too. That motivates me a lot (not being named to All-Star team). We might not be going through our best stretch hitting right now so that motivates me a lot too, to have my team’s back and hold on and throw as many scoreless innings as I can to get games close and give our team a chance to win.” 

Adding to the strangeness of the night were two horribly called strikes on Bryce Harper by home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi. The first came with a man on in the fifth on a ball clearly above the strike zone. The second on an 0-1 pitch in the eighth with a runner on and no outs. That totally changed Harper’s approach and led to a ground out to the pitcher.

Then Kerkering, after hitting leadoff batter Willy Adames, appeared to strikeout Matt Chapman not once but twice on pitches clearly in the zone, but Cuzzi saw otherwise, setting up the winning half inning where the Giants scored twice with just one ball leaving the infield, courtesy of a pair of fielders’ choices. 

“I feel like anytime I complain it’s pretty obvious,” said Harper of the missed calls. “He knows he missed them. Sometimes that happens. Umpire took over the game. I couldn’t say much more, I didn’t want to. I barely said anything to him when I walked off the first time on the strike three that was up. I respect Phil, I like Phil a lot. But obviously that doesn’t help us in that situation. He’s got to do better.”

As for his night, in which he had a hit and a walk in four plate appearances, Harper is feeling better after striking out five of his last six at-bats. “I felt confident today, felt really good where I was,” he said. “That’s going to be in for some good counts and be in some good situations.” 

His manager agreed. “I think he got a couple of swings off that I really liked,” said Thomson. “It looked normal. He was balanced and a lot of bat speed. Nice to see him get a base hit his first at-bat, walks, hopefully we’re making strides here.”

During all the craziness of the game, there were some positives to be taken. Kerkering’s work in the eighth, however, was not one of them.

“I haven’t seen the pitches yet, I haven’t looked at the tape, but he (Kerkering) was having trouble gripping the ball, for whatever reason, the ball was a little bit slick,” said Thomson. “It was more on his slider than his fastball. 

More than any other sport, you have to live to play another day in baseball. Sánchez’ effort allowed the Phillies to do just that.

Walker with a rested bullpen is the best case scenario Thomson could have asked for. Well, that and a win on Monday. But, sometimes, you just have to take what you can get. No matter the strange form in which it comes.

“Every time I’m on the mound I’m just thinking about going as late as I can in the game so we don’t have to go to the bullpen as often,” Sánchez said. It was certainly needed last night.

Craziness, good and bad all rolled into Phillies loss to Giants originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

SAN FRANCISCO – On a typically chilly summer night in the Bay Area, it was hoped that there wouldn’t be much action going on in the Phillies bullpen. Not that the work wouldn’t have kept the relievers warm, with Taijuan Walker once again thrusting into the starter’s role for Tuesday’s game in which he will see limited innings.

With snubbed All-Star Cristopher Sánchez on the mound, that didn’t appear to be an imminent problem against the San Francisco Giants on Monday. But when Sánchez was already at 59 thrown pitches through three innings, and had to continuously work out of precarious situations, many had to wonder what the immediate future may hold for the pitching staff.

In a game filled with defensive miscues, a ball careening off an infield cutout for a double, a run-saving ground-rule double, a run scoring on a wild pitch and a bunch of umpire missed calls, Sánchez pushed all that aside and settled in for a gutty, grinding and outstanding performance through seven innings. Erratic pitching from Orion Kerkering and very questionable calls from the home plate umpire led to a 3-1 loss for the Phillies in the opener of a six-game road trip.

“In the second inning, where they loaded the bases, he did a great job getting out of that with just one run,” said manager Rob Thomson. “Just getting behind guys early. I thought he was really good and battled through a couple of rough jams and I didn’t think there were that many balls hit hard off him. He got a lot of swings and misses, a lot of soft contact, ground balls. I thought he did a great job getting through seven.”

Sánchez allowed just one run in the second, though he gave up consecutive singles and a walk to begin the inning. A strikeout, a run-scoring fielders’ choice and a groundout ended what could have been worse.

Then in the third, a fly ball to short right with one out somehow landed between an incoming Nick Castellanos and an outgoing Bryson Stott. An out later, Matt Chapman hit a rocket to center that turned Brandon Marsh around twice before bouncing over the shortest part of the outfield wall for a ground-rule double. With runners on second and third, Sánchez struck out Wilmer Flores to end that threat. 

From there he settled into the form that should have been All-Star rewarded, retiring 12 of the next 15 batters he faced, racking up 105 pitches and saving strain on a bullpen that will almost certainly have just that on Tuesday.

But the Phillies offense couldn’t reward him with much support, as the lone run they scraped across came when Bryson Stott led off the inning with a double, moved to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch by starter Landen Roupp. 

“I think it went well,” said Sánchez. “I was sticking to the plan that we had to attack hitters early on. It was teamwork with J.T. (Realmuto) tonight, too. That motivates me a lot (not being named to All-Star team). We might not be going through our best stretch hitting right now so that motivates me a lot too, to have my team’s back and hold on and throw as many scoreless innings as I can to get games close and give our team a chance to win.” 

Adding to the strangeness of the night were two horribly called strikes on Bryce Harper by home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi. The first came with a man on in the fifth on a ball clearly above the strike zone. The second on an 0-1 pitch in the eighth with a runner on and no outs. That totally changed Harper’s approach and led to a ground out to the pitcher.

Then Kerkering, after hitting leadoff batter Willy Adames, appeared to strikeout Matt Chapman not once but twice on pitches clearly in the zone, but Cuzzi saw otherwise, setting up the winning half inning where the Giants scored twice with just one ball leaving the infield, courtesy of a pair of fielders’ choices. 

“I feel like anytime I complain it’s pretty obvious,” said Harper of the missed calls. “He knows he missed them. Sometimes that happens. Umpire took over the game. I couldn’t say much more, I didn’t want to. I barely said anything to him when I walked off the first time on the strike three that was up. I respect Phil, I like Phil a lot. But obviously that doesn’t help us in that situation. He’s got to do better.”

As for his night, in which he had a hit and a walk in four plate appearances, Harper is feeling better after striking out five of his last six at-bats. “I felt confident today, felt really good where I was,” he said. “That’s going to be in for some good counts and be in some good situations.” 

His manager agreed. “I think he got a couple of swings off that I really liked,” said Thomson. “It looked normal. He was balanced and a lot of bat speed. Nice to see him get a base hit his first at-bat, walks, hopefully we’re making strides here.”

During all the craziness of the game, there were some positives to be taken. Kerkering’s work in the eighth, however, was not one of them.

“I haven’t seen the pitches yet, I haven’t looked at the tape, but he (Kerkering) was having trouble gripping the ball, for whatever reason, the ball was a little bit slick,” said Thomson. “It was more on his slider than his fastball. 

More than any other sport, you have to live to play another day in baseball. Sánchez’ effort allowed the Phillies to do just that.

Walker with a rested bullpen is the best case scenario Thomson could have asked for. Well, that and a win on Monday. But, sometimes, you just have to take what you can get. No matter the strange form in which it comes.

“Every time I’m on the mound I’m just thinking about going as late as I can in the game so we don’t have to go to the bullpen as often,” Sánchez said. It was certainly needed last night.

Clayton Kershaw has been an All-Star 10 times before.

But no selection surprised him quite like this year’s.

Included on the National League All-Star team as a “Legend Pick” by Commissioner Rob Manfred in recognition of his career accomplishments, Kershaw did not get any advance warning from Manfred or anyone in the league office that he would be in the "Midsummer Classic."

When manager Dave Roberts gathered his Dodgers team to announce the club’s All-Star selections on Sunday, Kershaw forgot that the “Legend Pick” — which has been used in the past for players such as Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera — was even a thing.

Read more:'Really impressed.' Shohei Ohtani's return to two-way role going (mostly) well a month in

Thus, when Roberts announced Kershaw’s name, the 37-year-old was caught more than a little off-guard — having made just nine starts this season since returning from offseason toe and knee surgeries.

“Obviously, I don’t deserve to get to go this season, haven’t pitched very much,” he deadpanned. “I don’t know if Doc was going for the surprise factor or not. But I had no idea until he said it.”

But by Monday, the meaningfulness of what he described as a “tremendous honor” had also set in, with Kershaw expressing gratitude for what will be his 11th career selection, tied for the most among active players with Mike Trout.

“You never take for granted getting to go to an All-Star Game, regardless of the circumstances,” Kershaw said. “At the end of the day, it’s weird but cool, so I’m just going to enjoy it.”

While Kershaw’s limited workload would normally not warrant an All-Star selection, his stats haven’t been too far off that pace this year: A 4-0 record, 3.43 ERA and 1.254 WHIP in what is the 18th season of his future Hall of Fame career.

“I think there’s some good and some bad,” Kershaw said of his season so far. “I wouldn’t say happy, but I wouldn’t say disappointed either. I would say kind of right in the middle.”

The highlight of the campaign, of course, came in Kershaw’s last start, when he became the 20th pitcher in MLB history to record 3,000 career strikeouts.

But at this stage of his career, Kershaw’s real satisfaction has been with his health — finally past the various back, elbow, shoulder, knee and toe injuries that had plagued him over the last several seasons.

“I think the biggest thing is just the mental toll [that takes on you],” Kershaw said. “Anyone that has been dealing with stuff, I think it’s always in the back of your head. You wake up and you test it and you move around and you test it to see if it hurts, see how bad it hurts. [Now], instead of wondering if you can pitch, it’s just a matter of how you’re going to pitch. I don’t think I took into appreciation the mental toll that takes over time. So to just worry about pitching is nice, for sure.”

It has also allowed Kershaw “to get the reps and go back out and be able to feel OK in between starts to work on some stuff,” he said. “Figure out some different things mechanically and pitch-wise and stuff.”

Long-term, Kershaw still hasn’t decided if this will be his final season.

“I don’t know what is going to happen in the future,” he said. “I really have no idea when it comes to the years beyond this one. So I’m just trying to enjoy it, be part of a really good team this year.”

When it comes to next week’s All-Star Game, he isn’t even sure if he’ll pitch in the showcase exhibition, which will be held at Truist Park in Atlanta.

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“I’d love to pitch but I don’t want to take an inning away from somebody who’s never done it before or this is their first year or whatever,” he said. “I’ll enjoy just to hang or pitch or whatever.”

On Monday, Kershaw’s focus was instead on his final start of the first half: A scheduled Tuesday outing against the Milwaukee Brewers and their 23-year-old rookie starlet, Jacob Misiorowski.

Kershaw, 14 years Misiorowski’s senior, laughed when asked what it’s like to be the elder statesman in such high-profile matchups now.

“I saw a couple highlights [of him], know he throws hard,” Kershaw said. “But so does everybody. Except me.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Mets' reinforcements are coming. After battling without a handful of their regulars for a significant stretch this season, the Mets are hopeful that they’ll be able to get some big pieces back in action this week.

Jesse Winker is first on the list. The lefty slugger has been sidelined since May 4 with an oblique injury, but he played back-to-back games down in Syracuse this past weekend and could rejoin the team for the three-game set in Baltimore.

Winker will be evaluated before anything is confirmed, but he is coming off a strong showing in his potential final rehab appearance. He reached base three times and launched a two-run homer Sunday in Triple-A.

Getting him back in the mix would be a huge boost for this offense, especially as Starling Marte deals with a knee issue that flared up late in Sunday’s Subway Series finale.

Later in the week, Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea could return. Senga was a bit rusty during his rehab appearance Saturday in Double-A, but he said that he felt fine afterwards and, as long as everything comes back well the rest of the week, could rejoin the rotation in Kanas City.

The same goes for Manaea, who is still looking to make his season debut. The lefty has been dealing with elbow and oblique issues since spring training, but he is expected to make one final rehab appearance Tuesday in Syracuse, before potentially rejoining the team for the first-half finale.

He has allowed 12 runs (10 earned) while striking out 18 over 15 rehab innings.

"Getting them back is huge," Carlos Mendoza said. "It’s exciting."

"It’s almost like a trade deadline acquisition," Francisco Lindor added. “Those are some really good guys we definitely need and miss. That being said, the guys here have done a fantastic job stepping in while they were out.

"The way they’ve maneuvered through lineups, the way they have stuck together, it’s been really good to see. It’s adversity -- whenever somebody goes down, someone else has to step up and get the job done, and that’s what the guys have done."