NEW YORK – Teoscar Hernández reached second base, raised both hands, shimmied and twisted his right leg in a dance step that would make a Broadway choreographer proud.
With the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees scoreless into the 11th inning of a possible World Series preview that featured five Most Valuable Players, he had broken the deadlock with a two-run double.
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“It feels like the playoffs today. I like to play in this atmosphere,” Hernández said after the Dodgers' 2-1 win on Friday night stopped the Yankees' season-high, eight-game winning streak.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball in his Yankee Stadium debut, his velocity reaching a season high in the finest of his dozen Dodgers starts.
Anthony Banda, Blake Treinen, Daniel Hudson, Michael Grove (4-2) and Yohan Ramírez finished a five-hitter before a season-high crowd of 48,048, the fourth sellout of the year for the AL-best Yankees (45-20).
“Feeding off the crowd I think is what made it special," said New York captain Aaron Judge, who singled in a run in the 11th. "It was packed tonight and they were on their feet from the very first pitch all the way into extra innings.”
Ramírez, pitching for his third big league team this season, got his first save in two years. After Judge’s single, he threw a called third strike past Giancarlo Stanton — whose inning-ending flyout left the bases loaded in the eighth. Ramírez retired Anthony Rizzo on a foul pop, dropping New York to 1-4 in extra innings this year.
“Man, what a game. Wow,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Roberts had a glass of bourbon on his desk after the game, courtesy of pitcher Walker Buehler — Roberts said he would skip the booze so as not to slow down for Saturday.
In a sign of the game's import, Los Angeles had six team buses to ferry players, staff and family to the team's Manhattan hotel, rather than the usual two or three.
Los Angeles, which tops the NL West at 40-25, hadn’t played in the Bronx since 2016. Yamamoto, a heralded 25-year-old right-hander, was facing the team he spurned to sign a $325 million, 12-year deal with the Dodgers.
“I appreciated their interest in me,” Yamamoto said through a translator, “but when I faced him it was a normal game.”
He allowed two hits and two walks innings with seven strikeouts, throwing a season-high 106 pitches. He threw 20 pitches faster than 97.2 mph, which had been his high coming in, reaching a maximum 98.4 mph.
Yamamoto struck out Jose Trevino to strand runners at the corners in the second, starting a streak of 12 straight outs before a two-out walk to Judge in the sixth. Yamamoto then fanned Stanton on a fastball at the top of the strike zone.
Yamamoto credited a mechanical adjustment for the velocity. Roberts thought the ballpark was a factor.
“Yankee Stadium is not like any other ballpark. I’m sure when he was in Japan (he was) watching Godzilla take at-bats at Yankee Stadium, and he’s pitching in Yankee Stadium,” Roberts said in a reference to former New York Japanese star Hideki Matsui.
On a night plate umpire Todd Tichenor frustrated both teams with a tight strike zone, the game was scoreless into the 11th.
Shohei Ohtani, battling back and hamstring issues, went 0 for 5 and was repeatedly booed. He is hitting .195 with three homers and 10 RBIs since May 16, dropping his season average from .364 to .312.
New York’s Cody Poteet allowed two hits and three walks in 4 2/3 scoreless innings in his Yankee Stadium debut.
With Ohtani on second as the automatic runner in the 11th, Ian Hamilton (0-1) walked Freddie Freeman and retired Will Smith on a flyout before Hernández drove an 0-2 slider to the left-center gap. Hernández has 40 RBIs in 77 games against the Yankees. He also made leaping catch against the left-field wall on Anthony Volpe leading off first, and Judge followed with a one-out double.
“If that ball dropped,” Hernández said, “it would be 1-0.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: LHP Clayton Kershaw (shoulder surgery last Nov. 3) pitched two innings in a simulated game on Friday at Rancho Cucamonga and touched 90 mph, Roberts said. The 36-year-old, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, will throw a three-inning simulated game in five or six days. ... RHP Bobby Miller (right shoulder inflammation) allowed two runs — one earned — and four hits for Triple-A Oklahoma City in his third minor league rehab start, throwing 50 of 85 pitches for strikes. He could return to the big league team next week. ... 3B Max Muncy (strained right oblique that has sidelined him since May 15) is taking swings without a ball. “It’s still a slow program,” Roberts said.
Yankees: RF Juan Soto, bothered by a sore left forearm, missed his first game of the season for the Yankees. A scan showed just inflammation, and he is day to day. ... RHP Gerrit Cole (right elbow nerve inflammation) is to make a second rehab start for Double-A Somerset on Sunday.
UP NEXT
LHP Nestor Cortes (3-4, 3.46 ERA) starts Saturday night for the Yankees and RHP Gavin Stone (6-2, 2.90) for the Dodgers. Cortes is 3-1 with a 1.12 ERA at home and 0-3 with a 6.17 ERA on the road.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB