Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a pretty strong night during the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 8-2 win over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night. However, his outing began with an all-time horrible announcer’s jinx.
It did not even take one pitch for MLB Network to be completely negated.
Yamamoto, making the eighth start of his first year in Major League Baseball, entered the game on the heels of a 15-inning scoreless streak. He had not allowed a run since April 19. Los Angeles was 2-0 in their last two games with the international ace on the mound.
Greg Amsinger, a studio host for MLB Network, chose to go one step further. Rather than touting Yamamoto’s impressive run, the 44-year-old decided to put him on “no-hitter watch” before the first batter of the game even stepped into the box. It was his way of saying that the Dodgers’ newest arm is a dominant force, which his true. The choice of words was silly and he quadrupled down.
Amsinger said four times that Yoshinobu Yamamoto was on no-hitter alert. FOUR TIMES!
What happened next could not be any funnier.
Jazz Chisolm Jr. led off for Miami and sent the very first pitch deep to right-centerfield for a home run. The no-hitter alert issued by Amsinger was immediately shut down on a first-pitch dinger. 1-0 Marlins!
There have been far more devastating announcer’s jinxes in the past. At least Yamamoto wasn’t deep into the eighth without a hit before Amsinger’s quip. However, this is undoubtedly the worst.
To put Yoshinobu Yamamoto on no-hitter alert before the game got underway, only for the first hitter of the game to hit a home run on the first pitch of the game is such a bad beat. Announcer’s jinxes do not get any more embarrassing than that. Amsinger should refrain from such declarations moving forward…