Yamamoto adjusts after ‘eye-opening’ rookie season

Miami Marlins starting pitcher Jordan Yamamoto began his first major league season on a tear last year, but once opponents got a scouting report on him, it was a challenge to replicate the success he had in his first month.

After starting 15 games since being called up in mid-June 2019, the 24-year-old righthander is looking to take those experiences into Major League Baseball’s shortened 60-game season, returning amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s just adjusting and taking every game and taking every outing and rolling with it so that I stay unpredictable to the hitters,” said Yamamoto in a web conference with reporters on Monday afternoon.

Yamamoto went 4-0 with a 1.59 earnedrun average in his first six starts last season. The Marlins won all of those starts from the 6-foot Hawaiian hurler, except a 1-0 no decision against the Atlanta Braves. Over Yamamoto’s next nine starts, he went 0-5 with a 6.65 ERA.

Marlins manager Don Mattingly said it’s a natural progression for young players as they get called up after dominating in the minor leagues to learn how much more studying goes into the big-league game.

“If you’re not doing your homework, you don’t get by just on mixing pitches and throwing what you want whenever you want,” said Mattingly. “When you walk up here and you’ve been rolling along through the minor leagues, all of a sudden, the best of the best are here. And they’re here every night, and they study you. So you better be studying, kind of have an idea of what your game plan is going to be because they’re going to have one for you.

“Those adjustments are things that probably Yami and all our young guys go through as they get here. It’s just the difference in competition level and how you make those adjustments.”

Said Yamamoto: “It’s definitely just preparation — preparation and adjustments. In-game adjustments, pregame adjustments, just everything I can do because the minor leagues you don’t really get the guys that make the in-game adjustments or the guys that, if you see them one game, you’re going to have a whole different approach next time.”

Yamamoto acknowledged he was surprised by the extent to which the mental aspect is emphasized in the majors when he hit the rough patch.

“I didn’t really know that, and then once they did it to me, it’s like, ‘OK, it’s an eye opener. This game is definitely a lot faster, a lot harder,’ ” he said. “When you’re in the minor leagues, you think you’re doing enough, but when you come up here and you see all the veterans working, you see all the guys that have years in the big leagues doing their routine, you’re like, ‘Oh, mine isn’t as good.’ ’’

“I definitely got to trust everybody to help me out — coaches, players, other teammates who are there to help me to kind of create preparation.”

Yamamoto said he was able to throw bullpen sessions nearly every day during quarantine, accessing the Marlins’ Jupiter facilities and following Centers for Disease Controls (CDC) guidelines.

He noted that his breaking pitches have remained consistent throughout from spring training to the return to workouts at Marlins Park and he’s fine-tuning his control over them.

LYNNE SLADKY/AP Pitcher Jordan Yamamoto is looking forward to his second season in the big leagues. Last year, the Marlins starter said he learned the game “is definitely a lot faster, a lot harder.”