Yoshinobu Yamamoto can win the Nationwide League Cy Younger Award.
The opportunity of Yamamoto doing that has felt more and more actual each time he has stepped on the mound this season, reaching the purpose within the Dodgers’ 3-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Friday evening to the place the previously-reticent right-hander readily embraced it.
“I’ve heard no Japanese pitcher has won it yet, so I’m awfully interested in it,” Yamamoto mentioned in Japanese. “I think that concentrating on each and every game and performing at my best is what will lead to a wonderful award like that, so I’d like to do my best every day.”
The assertion was a mirrored image of how a lot has modified for the 26-year-old Yamamoto over the past 12 months.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws in opposition to the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium on Friday.
(Kevork Djansezian/For The Occasions)
The apprehension he exhibited in his first main league season has been changed by assertiveness, resulting in him terrorizing hitters of whom he was once overly respectful.
He pitched six scoreless innings in opposition to the Cubs to enhance his document to 2-1 and decrease his earned-run common to 1.23.
Yamamoto fully overwhelmed the Cubs, not giving up a success till the fourth inning and never issuing a stroll till the sixth. He struck out 9 batters, giving him 37 punchouts in 28 innings for the season.
As reluctant as supervisor Dave Roberts was to match Yamamoto to a different Japanese pitcher, he mentioned Yamamoto reminded him of Hideo Nomo due to his reliance on his fastball and splitter.
“You have hitters guessing,” Roberts mentioned. “It’s just a split that’s a strike, then it’s a ball that’s a swing and miss or a strikeout there. There’s a good fastball that’s commanded and that’s a lot like Hideo. He doesn’t have the tornado delivery, but it’s a lot like that.”
The beginning in opposition to the Cubs was noteworthy in how comfy Yamamoto was on the mound. He regarded nearly as if he was toying with them.
“I think I was able to control my fastball really well and I was able to throw my breaking balls in a good zone, which allowed me to pitch in good counts,” he mentioned. “I think that gave me a lot of options.”
Even when Kyle Tucker superior to 3rd base within the fourth inning, Yamamoto regarded as if he was in charge of the state of affairs. Even when Michael Busch labored the depend full in that inning, Yamamoto regarded as if he was in management.
And he was.
Yamamoto struck out Busch with a splitter for the third out of the inning. The pitch was within the strike zone, that means that Busch would have nonetheless struck out if he had stored the bat on his shoulder.
Dodgers beginning pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto celebrates with teammates within the dugout following the sixth inning throughout a win over the Chicago Cubs on Friday at Dodger Stadium.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Related Press)
Yamamoto’s management is so exact, Fuji Tv reporter Yu Suzuki mentioned in Japanese, “He has the luxury of throwing a strike with a 3-2 count.”
Suzuki would know.
A former pitcher for the Orix Buffaloes, the 28-year-old Suzuki was Yamamoto’s teammate for 5 seasons.
From Suzuki’s vantage level, Yamamoto is “starting to look like the Yoshinobu who pitched in Japan.” All through Yamamoto’s injury-plagued rookie season with the Dodgers, Suzuki insisted this could occur.
Suzuki has noticed Yamamoto’s higher consolation within the main leagues, noticing how Yamamoto has began altering the intervals between pitches and the velocity of his supply. Suzuki pointed to how Yamamoto can be throwing a greater diversity of pitches, which has given him a higher variety of methods he can assault hitters.
“This year, he’s mixing in his cutter or two-seamer more,” Suzuki mentioned. “Take tonight. He got a strikeout with a 95-mph two-seamer. When he mixes in a pitch like that, it makes it harder for hitters to sit on particular pitches.”
The power to throw any pitch in any depend is what made Yamamoto a three-time most precious participant in Japan. His showdown in opposition to Busch within the fourth inning was certainly one of three at-bats through which the hitter labored the depend full. He struck out the batter in every of them.
Yamamoto will proceed to enhance, Suzuki mentioned.
Mentioning how Yamamoto threw 103 pitches within the six innings he pitched in opposition to the Cubs, Suzuki mentioned, “In Japan, he used to pitch eight or nine innings like this, except he would do it in 110 pitches. I still think the pitch count is a little high by Yoshinobu’s standards. The real Yoshinobu can throw this many pitches and get through eight or nine innings.”
That wouldn’t simply make him a candidate for the Cy Younger Award. That may make him a lock.
