SI

Home Plate Angle of Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto Pitching vs. Yankees Was Frightening

Tim Capurso

New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton swings at a pitch from Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto during the bottom of the fourth inning of the Dodgers' 2-1 win on Friday at Yankee Stadium.
New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton swings at a pitch from Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto during the bottom of the fourth inning of the Dodgers' 2-1 win on Friday at Yankee Stadium. / Screengrab Twitter @MLBONFOX
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One can imagine that attempting to hit against major league pitching is one of the most difficult feats in professional sports.

But nothing does that sentiment justice quite like home plate camera angles of at-bats.

There were two such camera angle shots during the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2-1 win over the New York Yankees on Friday night at Yankee Stadium—and they were frightening.

The first saw Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who tossed seven innings of shutout ball against the Yankees, fire a 97 MPH sinker that shattered New York slugger Giancarlo Stanton's bat as he grounded out to Mookie Betts at shortstop in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Then, two frames later in the bottom of the sixth inning, Yamamoto, facing Yankees star Aaron Judge, fired a 97 MPH heater for a called strike, an offering that was caught on a home plate camera angle in a video posted onto X, formerly Twitter, by Rob Friedman.

The scariest part about these angles is that they still don't do true justice as to how fast the pitches are coming out of Yamamoto's hand.

And Yamamoto certainly was lighting up the radar gun on Friday night, as his four-seam fastball boasted an average speed of 97 MPH, up 1.5 MPH from his season average of 95.5, en route to the seven-strikeout performance against one of the best lineups in MLB.

The Dodgers (40-25) and Yankees (45-20) will lock horns again on Saturday at 7:35 p.m. ET, with Gavin Stone (6-2, 2.90 ERA) on the mound for Los Angeles and Nestor Cortes (3-4, 3.46 ERA) opposing him for New York.

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Tim Capurso
TIM CAPURSO

Tim Capurso is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in November 2023, he wrote for RotoBaller and ClutchPoints, where he was the lead editor for MLB, college football and NFL coverage. A lifelong Yankees and Giants fan, Capurso grew up just outside New York City and now lives near Philadelphia. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, exercising and spending time with his family, including his three-legged cat Willow, who, unfortunately, is an Eagles fan.

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