Yoshinobu Yamamoto rounds into playoff form as Dodgers move to cusp of NL West title

CINCINNATI –– There’s nothing the Dodgers can do, manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday afternoon, to get their all-important rotation ready for the added workload that will come in the postseason.Over the final couple weeks of the regular season, they have to just keep running their starters out there, and count on them to round into elevated October form.That’s what appeared to be happening with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday night at Great American Ball Park, in what was the right-hander’s most dominant performance of at least the last couple months.In the Dodgers’ 4-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds, Yamamoto threw a one-hit masterpiece over seven scoreless innings, flashing the kind of ruthless efficiency that defined his heroics during last year’s playoffs.The reigning World Series MVP hadn’t exactly been struggling lately, of course.Just last week, he held the Reds to one run over seven innings with 10 strikeouts back in Los Angeles.But Yamamoto did on Tuesday –– when he walked his first two batters, then retired 21 of his last 22 –– was different, racking up quick and easy outs on soft and harmless contact the way he so often did as the ace of last year’s postseason staff.Come this year’s playoffs, the Dodgers will need something similar from the 28-year-old.  The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story They might not be planning on him pitching back-to-back complete games (like he did in Game 2 of the NLCS and Game 2 of the World Series) or providing back-to-back nights of season-saving heroics (following up a victorious Game 6 start in the Fall Classic with a winning three-inning appearance out of the bullpen in Game 7). But in a postseason environment, you never know what will be required.“You can’t just try to create that during the r...