The Yankees and their fans found relief on Friday afternoon and then spent the rest of the night raising heart rates across the tri-state area for a variety of reasons.
The encouraging news that Juan Soto was only suffering from forearm inflammation immediately led to a highly anticipated showdown between the Yankees and Dodgers that had a playoff-like atmosphere.
The first game of the series went as expected, a tense, scoreless game that went into extra innings, with the Dodgers, visiting Yankee Stadium for the first time since 2016, spoiling the party.
Teoscar Hernandez hit a two-run double off Ian Hamilton in the 11th inning to finally end the Yankees’ winning streak at eight and lead the Dodgers to a 2-1 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 48,048.
The Yankees (45-20) got one run back in the bottom of the inning when Aaron Judge singled with one out, scoring automatic runner Anthony Volpe from second base.
But Dodgers relief pitcher Johan Ramirez struck out Giancarlo Stanton and got Anthony Rizzo out on a popout to end the game.
Hamilton held the Dodgers (40-25) scoreless in the top of the 10th, giving the Yankees a chance to win in the bottom of the innings.
But Trent Grisham couldn’t bunt to lead off the inning and was out on a fly out, and then Dodgers reliever Michael Grove got Jose Trevino and Volpe to pop out, sending the game into the 11th inning.
The Yankees started the game without Soto in the starting lineup for the first time this season after an MRI on Friday afternoon revealed forearm inflammation, which manager Aaron Boone called “good news.”
Boone didn’t rule out Soto coming off the bench Friday night, and the slugger was there with batting gloves on and a bat in hand as he stood on the top step of the dugout in the bottoms of the seventh and ninth innings.
However, he never went any further and seemed to act as a decoy the whole time.
After Yoshinobu Yamamoto held the Yankees scoreless in the seventh inning, the Yankees had a chance to fight back with two outs in the eighth on consecutive hits by Volpe and Alex Verdugo.
Judge then walked 10 pitches to load the bases, but Blake Treinen got Stanton to fly out to end the inning.
This was the first time the Yankees had seen Yamamoto up close on the mound since recruiting him during the offseason.
The Japanese ace met with the Yankees in Los Angeles after the December winter meetings, then traveled to New York for another meeting about a week later.
However, he ultimately turned down a 10-year, $300 million offer and signed with the Dodgers for a 12-year, $325 million contract.
When Yamamoto was introduced before the game, he was booed by the home crowd, but he lived up to expectations by getting off to the best start as a major leaguer, pitching seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, two walks and striking out seven batters.
The 5-foot-10 right-hander looked even more powerful heading into this big game.
He has averaged a 95.3 mph four-seam fastball in his starts, but on Friday night his four-seam fastball, one of six pitches he threw, averaged 97 mph.
Yamamoto made his second straight start in place of the injured Clark Schmidt and faced off in a pitching duel with Cody Poteet.
Poteat pitched four easy innings but gave up a walk and a single with two outs in the fifth.
With Shohei Ohtani’s pitching schedule approaching, manager Aaron Boone used left-handed relief pitcher Victor Gonzalez in the matchup against his former team.
Gonzalez made quick work of Ohtani, getting him out of the jam with a grounder to first base.
Then in the sixth inning, with a runner on first and an out at first, Michael Tonkin came in to replace Gonzalez and struck out two batters.
Tonkin returned to the mound in the seventh inning and gave up a double to Kiké Hernández with two outs, but stayed on to face Mookie Betts.
With the count at 2-2 and the crowd on its feet, Tonkin got Betts to ground out and cheers rang out around the stadium.
