Yoshinobu Yamamoto named Opening Day
Yoshinobu Yamamoto will take the mound for the Dodgers on Opening Day — his second consecutive Opening Day start — underscoring his role in LA’s title defense plans. (mlb.com) Opening Day for the 2026 season is set for March 26, so that start cements Yamamoto as the staff ace heading into the year. (mlb.com)
Yamamoto enters the season as a 27-year-old right-hander who emerged as the Dodgers’ clear staff leader in 2025, finishing the year as the only member of the rotation who did not miss a start. (mlb.com) His 2025 regular-season line was 12–8 with a 2.49 ERA across 30 starts, and he finished third in National League Cy Young voting behind Paul Skenes and Cristopher Sánchez. (mlb.com) In the postseason he threw consecutive complete games — NLCS Game 2 and World Series Game 2 — becoming the first pitcher to go the distance in back-to-back postseason games since Curt Schilling in 2001 and the first Dodger to do it since Orel Hershiser in 1988. (mlb.com) Yamamoto also worked on extremely short rest late in the Fall Classic: after a six-inning, 96-pitch outing in Game 6 he returned to throw the final 2 2/3 innings of Game 7, finishing as the winning pitcher in three of Los Angeles’ four World Series victories and earning Series MVP honors. (mlb.com) He missed parts of spring camp while pitching for Samurai Japan in the World Baseball Classic, taking two starts (6 2/3 innings) and allowing two earned runs for a 2.70 WBC ERA before Japan fell to Venezuela in the quarterfinals. (mlb.com) Last season’s opener came in Tokyo at the Tokyo Dome; this assignment will mark Yamamoto’s first season-opening start at Dodger Stadium. (mlb.com) The club noted the repeat is a rarity — he’s the first Dodgers pitcher to start consecutive season-openers since Clayton Kershaw’s streak from 2011–2018 — and manager Dave Roberts called the decision “pretty easy.” (ocregister.com)(mlb.com)
