Yoshinobu Yamamoto retires 20 in a row against Mets

LOS ANGELES — The Mets may have struck first, but Yoshinobu Yamamoto was largely in control the rest of the way.

In what went down as a thrilling pitchers’ duel between Yamamoto and Mets starter Nolan McLean, the Dodgers emerged victorious in a 2-1 contest, getting a go-ahead RBI single from Kyle Tucker in the bottom of the eighth inning to help secure a series win. Lefty Alex Vesia, rather than closer Edwin Díaz, locked down the save with a clean ninth inning.

Yamamoto opened his start by twice missing out of the zone to Francisco Lindor, who then unloaded on a middle-middle four-seamer, parking it in the right-field seats. Lindor’s leadoff blast ended a 20-inning scoreless streak for the Mets, but Yamamoto quickly set about starting a new one.

Starting with his second batter of the game, Yamamoto retired 20 straight Mets hitters, a streak that held until the seventh inning. The most stress he faced between Lindor’s homer and then may have come in the fourth, when Freddie Freeman made a high throw to first base after snaring a Jorge Polanco grounder and Yamamoto had to make a well-timed leap to snag the ball and get his foot on the bag in time to make the out.

Yamamoto’s shutdown streak came to an end when he surrendered a two-out double to Bo Bichette in the seventh inning. He followed that by issuing a walk to Francisco Alvarez, seemingly showing some fatigue. But following a mound visit with pitching coach Mark Prior, Yamamoto bore down and got Brett Baty to swing through a splitter for the final out of the inning.

Yamamoto came back out for the eighth inning and got two quick outs before giving up back-to-back singles, leaving runners on the corners for Blake Treinen, who stranded them both with an ABS-confirmed strikeout of Luis Robert Jr.

Yamamoto threw 104 pitches across 7 2/3 innings, striking out seven, walking one and allowing four hits to go toe-to-toe with Mets starter Nolan McLean.

One night after Justin Wrobleski twirled eight scoreless innings, Yamamoto followed suit with a brilliant performance of his own. In Wednesday night’s series finale, Shohei Ohtani will get the chance to continue the run of dominance for the rotation.