Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Mon, Jul 20, 2026

Yamamoto tosses a complete game, 4 hits and 2 earned runs, for win No. 10

In today's start against the Yankees, Yamamoto went the full nine innings, allowing 4 hits and 2 earned runs with 7 strikeouts and zero walks — a complete-game effort. Compared to his season ERA of 2.78 and WHIP of 0.88, this was a tightly controlled outing built on a walk-free approach.

The most striking number here is his platoon split. Against right-handed batters this season, he's allowing a .184 average and .553 OPS; against lefties, .193 and .557 — a gap of just .009. Most pitchers show a clearer split toward one side, but Yamamoto is suppressing both sides almost identically, which speaks to his overall pitch mix rather than a platoon-dependent weapon. Looking at his last ten starts, the July 12 outing against Arizona was the outlier — 6 innings, 6 earned runs — but every other start in that stretch came in at 3 earned runs or fewer, including double-digit strikeout games on July 5 against San Diego (7 IP, 0 ER, 10 K) and June 1 against Philadelphia (5.1 IP, 0 ER, 10 K). Given today's zero walks, it's reasonable to infer he was attacking the zone early and aggressively rather than nibbling at the edges — the kind of sequencing that keeps hitters from ever getting into a comfortable count.

With a 7:0 strikeout-to-walk ratio, this start adds cleanly to his season total of 113 strikeouts and reinforces just how dominant his command has become. Unicorn's take: a walk-free complete game like this is the clearest sign that Yamamoto's command is only sharpening as the season heads into its final stretch.