The Yankees dropped the opener of a three-game series against the Dodgers on Friday night, falling to Los Angeles in a 2-1, 11-inning loss.

Here are the takeaways...

-Cody Poteet, filling in for the injured Clarke Schmidt, turned in an admirable performance against a star-studded Dodgers lineup on Friday. The 29-year-old held the Dodgers scoreless over 4.2 innings, allowing just two hits while walking two and hitting one batter.

The right-hander was not overpowering – striking out just one batter – but was efficient and limited any potential rallies. Only one batter reached second base against him and he even helped out his teammates, picking off Kiké Hernandez after he reached on a Gleyber Torres error in the third inning.

The only time Poteet found himself in serious trouble was in the fifth inning after he issued a two-out walk to Hernandez and allowed a single to Mookie Betts.

That prompted Aaron Boone to bring in left-hander Victor Gonzalez to face Shohei Ohtani, who grounded out to first base to get out of the jam.

-On the other side, it was Yoshinobu Yamamoto – the prized Japanese pitcher whom the Dodgers outbid the Yankees for in the offseason – who silenced New York’s lineup. The rookie right-hander tossed seven shutout innings, holding the Juan Soto-less Yankees to just two hits while walking two and striking out seven.

Yamamoto appeared to benefit from his fastball, which he averaged at 95 mph this season but was consistently throwing in the 97-98 mph range on Friday night.

It appeared as if the Yankees might have had an opportunity to put a rally together in the seventh when Yamamoto walked Torres with one out. Soto was standing at the top of the dugout putting batting gloves on while DJ LeMahieu came to the plate, but LeMahieu grounded into an inning-ending double play. Boone said after the game that Soto was "feeling the moment" and was not actually available.

-The Yankees bullpen followed Poteet’s lead as Gonzalez, Michael Tonkin, Caleb Ferguson, Clay Holmes and Ian Hamilton combined to throw 5.2 more scoreless innings.

But it was also Hamilton who broke the streak. After he escaped a jam with two on in the 10th by getting Ohtani to hit a hard grounder to first, he did not have the same luck when he came back out for the 11th inning.

The right-hander walked Freddie Freeman to set up first and second. Will Smith popped up for the first out but Teoscar Hernandez roped a line drive into the left-center field gap to drive in two and give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.

-The Yankees had their best chance to strike in the eighth inning when Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo had back-to-back bloop singles to bring Aaron Judge up to the plate. Dave Roberts called on right-hander Blake Treinen to face Judge, who worked a 10-pitch walk to load the bases for Giancarlo Stanton.

But Stanton failed to capitalize as he just missed connecting on a sinker and instead flew out to left field to end the threat.

The Yanks finally got on board in the 11th inning courtesy of an RBI single from Judge, but Stanton struck out and Anthony Rizzo popped out to end the game.

Who was the MVP? Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Yamamoto was given the largest contract to a pitcher this offseason and on Friday he showed why he earned that. In perhaps the biggest start of his career thus far, Yamamoto tossed seven shutout innings at Yankee Stadium, striking out seven as he dazzled in the Bronx.

Here are the takeaways...

Who was the MVP? Yoshinobu Yamamoto

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