Yamamoto knows innings matter for Dodgers rotation that often lists TBA as probable pitcher

NEW YORK (AP) — Yoshinobu Yamamoto knows innings matter for a decimated Los Angeles Dodgers rotation that frequently lists TBA as a probable pitcher.

“Right now anything can happen in terms of injury or a mishap within the rotation,” he said through a translator.

Los Angeles leads the New York Mets 2-1 in the National League Championship Series going into Yamamoto's start Thursday night. A 5-foot-10 right-hander, Yamamoto is one of the few arms remaining from a projected rotation that once included Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Bobby Miller, James Paxton, Emmet Sheehan and Gavin Stone. All their seasons ended early because of injuries.

In addition, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin spent the entire year recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Yamamoto started twice in the Division Series against San Diego, and July trade acquisition Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler and reliever Ryan Brasier once each.

Flaherty pitched seven scoreless innings in Sunday's NLCS opener, a deep outing that has become a rarity for the Dodgers. Brasier was used as a one-inning opener in their Game 2 loss and Buehler returned for Game 3 against the Mets on Wednesday night as Yamamoto readied for his turn.

Yamamoto lasted three innings in his postseason debut, departing the series opener against the Padres with a 5-3 deficit after allowing Xander Bogaerts' two-run double in a game the Dodgers won 7-5.

He pitched five scoreless innings of two-hit ball to outduel Japanese countryman Yu Darvish as the Dodgers won the deciding Game 5, leaving after 63 pitches.

“In Game 5, I think my mechanics were much better than the first one,” he said Wednesday afternoon.

Yamamoto joined the Dodgers on a $325 million, 12-year contract last winter, bypassing offers from the New York Yankees and Mets. The right-hander, who turned 26 in August, was 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA in 18 starts, striking out 105 and walking 22 in 90 innings while mixing six different pitches that included a fastball averaging 95.5 mph. Yamamoto was sidelined between June 15 and Sept. 10 by triceps tightness.

He faced the Mets once during the regular season, allowing four runs — three earned — and seven hits over six innings while striking out nine in a no-decision at Dodger Stadium on April 19.

“He’s a super-polished guy,” said Mets slugger Pete Alonso, who struck out on a low curveball in a three-pitch at-bat, hit an RBI single on a full-count curve over the heart of the strike zone and grounded out on a low splitter.

Last fall, Yamamoto was pitching for Orix against Hanshin in the Japan Series. He allowed seven runs in the opening loss and struck out a Japan Series-record 14 in a 138-pitch complete game that forced a Game 7.

“He’s pitched in big ballgames, so I knew he would step up in a big ballgame," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s not physical in stature, but what he can generate as far as power is pretty remarkable.”

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Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws to a San Diego Padres batter during the first inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto reacts as San Diego Padres' Jackson Merrill flies out during the fourth inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws to a San Diego Padres batter during the first inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws to a San Diego Padres batter during the fourth inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, center, celebrates in the dugout after a win over the San Diego Padres in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, left, shakes hands with catcher Will Smith after San Diego Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr. grounded into a double play during the third inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Yamamoto knows innings matter for Dodgers rotation that often lists TBA as probable pitcher

Yamamoto knows innings matter for Dodgers rotation that often lists TBA as probable pitcher

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws to a San Diego Padres batter during the second inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Shaban al-Dalu was sleeping in his tent in a central Gaza hospital's courtyard, still recuperating from wounds from an Israeli strike on a mosque a week earlier, when a new strike hit, setting off an inferno.

The 19-year-old university student and his 38-year-old mother, Alaa al-Dalu, were among five people killed as the blaze ripped through a tent camp sheltering hundreds of Palestinian families in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah. Dozens of others, including children, were severely burned.

Al-Dalu and his mother were sleeping in the tent along with his father and three siblings when the strike hit at around 1:30 a.m. on Monday. Mohammed al-Dalu, his fifth sibling, was sleeping nearby at his vendor's table when the explosion jolted him awake. He found his father and uncle, who lived in a neighboring tent, struggling to pull their families out of the fire.

The father, Ahmed al-Dalu, said he managed to rescue two of his sons and his daughter, but not his wife or eldest child, Shaban. “My son was being burned in front of me,” he said, speaking at the hospital with burns on his face. “I accepted the will of God in every sense of the word.”

The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding out among the displaced, without providing evidence to support its claim. It was the seventh Israeli attack on this hospital compound since March; three of them occurred in September, according to Doctors without Borders, which supports the hospital.

The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up more than half the fatalities. It has displaced more than 1.9 million of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

Over the course of the war, the military has repeatedly raided hospitals and struck crowded shelters and tent camps, alleging that Hamas fighters were using them as staging grounds for attacks, without showing evidence.

Monday's strike brought chaos at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, as firefighters and displaced people attempted for hours to put out the blaze, using small fire extinguishers and buckets of water. Several secondary explosions went off, but their cause was not known. The courtyard was left covered in burned-out wreckage of shed and tents, made of wood and plastic sheets, with people's belongings inside.

“It’s a scene of devastation. Tents caught on fire while people were sleeping,” said Eliza Sabatini, a nurse with Doctors Without Borders who was working at the hospital.

More than 60 people, including 10 children and 8 women, were wounded, most suffering severe burns. One man sobbed as he carried a toddler with a bandaged head in his arms. Another small child with a bandaged leg was given a blood transfusion on the floor of the packed Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, where many wounded were rushed.

Shaban al-Dalu, who would have turned 20 on Wednesday, memorized the Quran when he was young and cared for his siblings.

A university student studying computer science, he would post videos on social media telling people his family’s displacement stories and his dream of leaving Gaza. In a video posted in March, filmed from their tent in the hospital's courtyard, he said his family fled their home in Gaza City's Rimal neighborhood just after the war began in October last year. Since then, he said, they had moved five times to escape fighting.

“We live in a very hard circumstance,” he said in the video. He launched an online fundraiser hoping to make enough money to get his family to Egypt. By Wednesday, it had raised more than $24,200 — though no one has been been able to leave Gaza since Israeli troops seized the crossing with Egypt in May.

“I used to have big dreams, but the war has ruined them,” he wrote on his GoFundMe page. “Time feels like it’s stopped in Gaza, and we’re stuck in a never-ending nightmare.”

On Oct. 6, he was reciting the Quran in a mosque near the hospital when an Israeli airstrike hit the place of worship, his brother Mohammed said. Shaban suffered a head wound that required 11 stitches and was still recuperating in the tent when Monday's strike hit.

Shaban's father and the three siblings in the tent have all been left severely burned, some up to 70% of their body, Mohammed said. The body of his 11-year-old brother Adbel-Rahman is completely covered in bandages, and his sister's back and the left side of her face were badly burned, he said.

Shaban's uncle, Abdel-Hayy al-Dalu, recalled how the families had thought they were safe when they arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

“We built tents — me and my brother — and sheltered here,” he said. “We ruled out that it will be bombed since it’s a hospital.”

After rescuing his wife and two daughters, Abdel-Hayy rushed to his brother’s tent, hoping to save his nephew and sister-in-law.

“We couldn’t help them,” he said. “We were helpless.”

Abdel-Hayy Shaban al-Dalu, at the site where his nephew, Shaban, was killed in a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The site of a deadly fire, after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mohamed al-Dalu gestates to the site where his brother, Shaban, was killed in a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Ahmad al-Dalu, suffering from burns, lost his son, Shaban, in a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, at the site on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The site of a deadly fire, after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Ahmad al-Dalu, center, whose son, Shaban, was killed in a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, at the site on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

FILE - Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana, File)

Shaban al-Dalu, a 19-year-old university student, seen in this undated image, was among five people killed in an Israeli strike that hit a tent camp for displaced people in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah on Monday, Oct. 13, 2024. (Al-Dalu family photo via AP)