Dodgers throwing the last pitch, then the first pitch
· Yahoo Sports
Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Monday was officially named the opening day starter for the Dodgers, with the right-hander set to take the mound on Thursday, March 26 against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium.
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That puts Yamamoto in rare air, considering he also threw the last pitch for the Dodgers in 2025, getting the final eight outs in Game 7 of the World Series, the day afterthrowing 96 pitches in six innings in Game 6. In case you forgot how that ended, Yamamoto won Game 6 and Game 7, and the Dodgers won a second straight World Series, with the star Japanese right-hander at the center of it all.
Yamamoto next week will join Sandy Koufax as the only Dodgers pitchers to close out a World Series championship, then throw the first pitch of the next season. Koufax beat the New York Yankees in 1963 to win World Series MVP, just like Yamamoto last year.
In 1964 he started the Dodgers’ first game, also at Dodger Stadium, this time a shutout to beat the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the only opening day start of Koufax’s illustrious career.
While Koufax and soon Yamamoto are the only Dodgers to follow the last pitch of a championship and the first pitch of the next season, eight others in modern franchise history threw the Dodgers’ final pitch of one season and the first pitch of the next.
Others in the Fall ClassicBrooklyn lost the best-of-nine World Series five games to two in 1916, their first trip to the Fall Classic. Wheezer Dell pitched a scoreless inning to conclude the Dodgers’ pitching in that series, then started on opening day in 1917 against the Phillies, allowing six runs in five innings in a loss.
Carl Erskine pitched the final two innings of Game 7 of the 1952 World Series in scoreless fashion, in a game the Dodgers lost 4-2 to the rival New York Yankees. Then he started opening day in 1953 against the Pirates at Ebbets Field. That didn’t go as well for Erskine, who allowed four runs in three innings. But Brooklyn rallied for an 8-5 win.
One regular season into anotherRight-hander Cy Barger pitched three of his seven major league seasons for Brooklyn, and closed out the 1910 season with a complete-game loss against the Boston Braves. He followed that up with the opening day start in 1911, and lost another one-run game to the Braves, this time on the road.
Dazzy Vance is the other Hall of Famer in this group along with Koufax, and just as Koufax won NL MVP in 1963, so did Vance in 1924 after leading the league in wins (28) and strikeouts (262). Vance on the last day of the 1924 season pitched his 30th complete game of the year in beating the Braves at Ebbets Field. Then in 1925, Vance beat the Philadelphia Phillies on opening day with another complete game.
Jesse Petty ended the 1926 season with a complete-game win over the Chicago Cubs, and started 1927 with an opening-day win in Boston.
Leftt-hander Watson Clarkbeat the Phillies to end the 1928 season, then started on opening day in 1929 in Boston. Clark lasted only three innings and allowed five runs, in a wild game Brooklyn lost 13-12.
Hall of Famer Don Drysdale pitched the final two innings in relief to beat the Cubs at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, closing out the 1960 season. Drysdale struck out two in that game to give him a major-league-leading 246 strikeouts on the season, at the time the fourth-most strikeouts in modern National League history.
Then Drysdale beat the Phillies in the same stadium with seven strong innings to open the 1961 campaign. That was the fourth consecutive opening day start for the then-24-year-old Drysdale, who would start seven opening days in his career.
Nobody knew it at the time, but Ramón Mártinezshutting out the Cincinnati Reds on August 11, 1994 was the Dodgers’ final game of the season. Before this start, Mártinez was briefly back home in Glendale for the birth of his daughter.
“They were saying to me, ‘Have another kid,” Martínez said, laughing, to Maryanne Hudson of the Los Angeles Times.
The players’ strike began the next day, and labor strife escalated enough to cancel the World Series that year as well as lop one-ninth of the 1995 schedule as well. Once an accord between players and owners was finally reached and a shortened-spring training got folks ready, Martínez pitched six strong innings to beat the Florida Marlins in Miami in the Dodgers’ first game.