CONTACT US

Contact Form

    News Details

    Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start Opening Day for the Dodgers
    • March 16, 2026

    GLENDALE, Ariz. – The same player who threw the last pitch of their back-to-back championship will throw the first pitch of the Dodgers’ attempt to three-peat.

    With Yoshinobu Yamamoto (as well as Shohei Ohtani and Edwin Diaz) back in camp after their teams were eliminated from the World Baseball Classic, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed the obvious – Yamamoto will be the Dodgers’ Opening Day starter for 2026.

    Yamamoto started the Dodgers’ first game in Tokyo last year. This time, the 2025 World Series MVP will start at Dodger Stadium on March 26 to kick off the 2026 season. Zac Gallen has been announced as the starter for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

    “It is a pretty easy decision, considering that it’s an honor to be the Opening Day starter,” Roberts said Monday. “He started for us last year on the road. But for him to get that start on Opening Day at home I think it’s going to be special.”

    Yamamoto is the first pitcher to start back-to-back season-opening games for the Dodgers since Clayton Kershaw made the Opening Day start eight consecutive years from 2011 through 2018.

    Signed to a 12-year, $325 million contract that made him the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history before he had even thrown a pitch in MLB, Yamamoto has gone 19-10 with a 2.66 ERA in his first two seasons with the Dodgers. Last year, he finished third in the National League Cy Young voting for his regular-season performance. But it was his historic postseason that will be remembered.

    Yamamoto made five starts and one relief appearance – the final 2 ⅔ innings of World Series Game 7 after starting Game 6. He threw complete games in the National League Championship Series and World Series (Game 2) and was the winning pitcher in three of the Dodgers’ four World Series victories over the Toronto Blue Jays, making him the obvious choice as World Series MVP.

    ​ Orange County Register 

    News