Yoshinobu Yamamoto adds to his already sterling postseason résumé, puts the Dodgers back in control in NLDS Game 3: 'He's just not afraid'

ATLANTA — Will Smith couldn't make out exactly what Yoshinobu Yamamoto was saying.

Perhaps it was the language barrier. The Dodgers had already made a mound visit in the fifth inning, meaning interpreter Will Ireton could not reemerge from the dugout. And so, only Smith and third baseman Kiké Hernández, a close confidant of Yamamoto's, joined the all-world hurler on the hill.

Or maybe Yamamoto was drowned out by the Truist Park crowd, rising, chanting, chopping, glad to finally be in the presence of something worth cheering for.

Because after four innings of calm dominance, Yamamoto, October's sharpest buzzsaw, looked to be on the ropes in NLDS Game 3 .

Atlanta's offense, down 3-0 in the fifth, had juiced the bases with one out. As Yamamoto, Smith and Hernández congregated on the mound, Drake Baldwin, leadoff hitter and All-Star, lurked ominously in the left-handed batter's box. Darude's "Sandstorm" jumped from the ballpark speakers. A moment, the kind that makes playoff baseball a special beast, was building.

The Braves had found themselves in possession of something rare, something precious, something worth seizing: a postseason opportunity against one of the greats. For the first time all season, Yamamoto was unmoored enough to require two mound visits in the same inning.

But Hernández, as he has been so often for the Dodgers over the years, was in the right place at the right time.

"[I went to the mound] because of the relationship with Yoshi and what we've gone through together," Hernández told Yahoo Sports after Los Angeles' 3-1 win on Tuesday . "I'm glad I was there."

The L.A. stalwart and cult hero, whose fourth-inning, two-run blast (his 17th career postseason homer) had gotten the scoring started, understood what Yamamoto was trying to convey and knew how to communicate it to Smith.

"I was able to translate because of my good Japanese," he added in jest.

"That was an encouraging moment," Yamamoto acknowledged afterward. "He told me just be yourself, even though that was a little bit like a dirty word."

The Braves, after failing to take advantage, likely uttered a cuss or two themselves.

Baldwin grounded out meekly to first, driving in Atlanta's first run in the process. That brought the slumping Ronald Acuña Jr. to the dish with the chance for a signature October highlight. Instead, the 2023 NL MVP bounced an inning-ending, rally-burning, game-killing, potentially season-altering grounder to second baseman Miguel Rojas. The threat was quelled, the window was closed. The reigning World Series MVP, and his three-peat-seeking ballclub, were back in control.

Yamamoto set down the next six hitters he faced, breezily tossing up zeros in the sixth and seventh frames before giving way to Los Angeles' bullpen. In all, it was yet another sensational October outing by the diminutive right-hander: 7 innings, 1 run, 10 strikeouts.

"Wow. What a performance," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts gushed postgame. "... He just has a way to just make pitches, calm his heartbeat."

So much of the conversation entering Tuesday's crucial contest centered on Braves ace Chris Sale, who, after Atlanta's surprise Game 2 victory , had a chance to push the Dodgers to the brink. But the Dodgers ground Sale down in the early going , working up his pitch count and setting the stage for Hernández's big swing in the fourth. Sale was done after five.

Yamamoto, on the other hand, went seven innings in a playoff game for the third time since he came over from Japan ahead of 2024. The only other player to accomplish that in the same span? Dodgers Game 1 starter Tarik Skubal.

"He's just not afraid," catcher Will Smith said of Yamamoto.

And while Yamamoto's secured eternal-hero status with that Game 7, no-rest, World Series relief appearance for the ages, the totality of his postseason résumé is similarly impressive, historic, awe-inspiring.

After Tuesday's gem, Yamamoto holds the second-lowest postseason career ERA in MLB history among pitchers with at least 10 postseason starts. The only name ahead of him, San Francisco Giants icon Madison Bumgarner, is well within reach, with a 2.11 to Yamamoto's 2.14. And the Dodgers' ace, almost certainly, should have many, many more chances to shrink that number. He's still just 28 years old, and Los Angeles is in the playoffs every year.

The legend is already large, yet the legend is still building.

Somehow, the same can be said for Hernández, who at 35 years old, was not guaranteed to be part of this year's Dodgers story. After playing a key role in last year's epic Game 7 alongside Yamamoto, Hernández hit the free-agent market. A return to L.A. was far from certain. He hadn't been a league-average hitter since the 2021 season. Age and injuries were starting to pile up.

Then he re-signed with the Dodgers late in the offseason, after pitchers and catchers had reported, but appeared in just 41 games. His health and his place on this October roster were never a given.

Yet in some ways, this was also inevitable.

Amidst Los Angeles' financial might and player development prowess and institutional grandeur, Hernández represents a more human side of this juggernaut. If Yamamoto, alongside Shohei Ohtani, is a cornerstone of this glorious Dodgers run and all it represents, Hernández is an appreciated connection to a bygone era, a holdover with a clutch gene.

This mercurial goofball has been a fundamental part of this organization's DNA for the better part of the past decade. He is a flawed ballplayer, in a year-over-year decline. He is also indispensable. After not playing in the first two games of this series, Hérnandez delivered the biggest swing of its third. And nobody was particularly surprised. All those experiences in big moments allow Hernández to be thoroughly unperturbed by the scale of it all. None of this feels big to him anymore, even if it still does to the rest of us.

"I don't know how much it means," Hernández responded to a reporter's question about what the home run meant to him. "But it feels good."

So do the Dodgers, back where they believe they belong, with a 2-1 series lead, thanks to these two dissimilar postseason pillars.