One mistake. That’s all it took to snap the Dodgers’ five-game winning streak and also hand Yoshinobu Yamamoto another frustrating loss.

After giving up a first-inning solo home run in a 1-0 defeat to the Padres on Monday, the Dodgers ace didn’t mince words. “It decided the game,” he said. “I really think it was bad that I gave up a home run like that in the first inning and let them take the lead.”

Yamamoto didn’t have an ideal start, hanging a two-strike splitter to Miguel Andújar in the opening frame. But after giving up the homer, Yamamoto settled in. He retired 18 Padres hitters consecutively, striking out eight batters across seven innings. But with Michael King allowing just four hits in seven innings and not earning a run, it was an uphill battle for the Dodgers’ offense.

The Dodgers had their chances, especially when Padres closer Mason Miller walked two batters in the ninth, but they ultimately stranded the runners to seal the 1-0 defeat.

After the game, Yamamoto took another loss despite allowing just 3 hits in the game. Yamamoto blamed himself and called Andujar’s hanging splitter “a frustrating mistake.”

Before the season started, most of the fans expected the Los Angeles Dodgers to fly past teams because of the players they had. But it has been anything but that for LA. They have faced massive struggles offensively, and that is adding a lot of pressure on the pitching to take the blame even for one small mistake, like Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Freddie Freeman defended Yamamoto, saying, “Yoshinobu made one mistake,” following Monday night’s heartbreaking defeat. Dave Roberts was also frustrated and said, “Unfortunately, we couldn’t put anything together,” pointing to the offensive no-show.

This isn’t a one-time thing for Yamamoto. The first inning keeps giving him trouble. He has already given up five home runs on two-strike pitches this year, matching his total from all of last season.

In this game, however, he needed support from the offense. The Dodgers managed just five hits in the game, and none of them were extra-base hits. But this is not the first time the Dodgers’ offense has gone silent and cost their pitchers wins.

During the series losses to the Giants, Braves, and now the Padres, the highest the Dodgers managed to score was three runs. But even then, the margin of loss was not that great, showing that the pitchers have been doing a decent job.

And the reason for the low scores is visible. Although the Dodgers have 422 hits and rank second in the league, they have just 75 doubles and rank 14th in the league. That can’t be expected from a team that has a payroll over $350 million. This loss has not only exposed a glaring gap in the offense but has also added a lot of pressure to the team.

With this 1-0 loss, the Dodgers have fallen to second in the NL West standings and are behind the Padres. But there is one more huge problem the Dodgers have.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s pitching is a major concern

In recent days, the Dodgers’ offense has received a lot of criticism, and it is deserved. They have not performed well for a huge part of the season till now, and they deserve the criticism. But that is taking the eyes off the Dodgers pitching, which has also been a major problem.

The rotation with Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, and Emmet Sheehan has been very inconsistent. Glasnow is on the IL right now, but even before that, he had an ERA of 2.72, which was decent. But when you combine it with Snell earning 4 runs in a game and getting back on the IL, Sasaki not looking good enough, and the others looking shaky.

All this is becoming a big problem for the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ pitching. But the problem looks even more glaring when you see that Yamamoto has been struggling. The Cy Young runner-up has been facing troubles of his own this season.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto has an ERA of 3.32 in nine starts and has a 3-4 win-loss record. Yamamoto has just one win in his last six starts, and he has an ERA of 5.18 in his last five starts. Yamamoto has also given up multiple homers this season and has given up 3-5 runs in his last 4 starts. And that has become a major problem for the Dodgers, considering that the offense is also not doing its job.

For any other pitcher, this would have been a good start, but for Yamamoto, the expectations were much higher. After finishing 2025 with a 2.49 ERA, winning the World Series, winning the World Series MVP, and finishing second in Cy Young rankings, he was expected to lead the rotation. But things have been bad.

The only saving grace for the rotation has been Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani has been having a Cy Young-caliber season with an ERA of just 0.82 in seven starts. And unlike Yamamoto, Ohtani has not allowed more than two runs in any of his starts. But he still has a 3-2 record because the team has not been able to support him.

But the fans still trust Yamamoto because of the reputation he has built. He became a household name in LA after pitching on consecutive days for LA in the World Series, and the team still believes in their ace. But if the pitching is going to be up and down, questions will start to rise about Yamamoto.