When Yoshinobu Yamamoto arrived in Major League Baseball (MLB), the expectations for the Japanese pitcher were high. But his 2025 season not only met but exceeded all expectations, transforming him from a rookie to a historic hero for the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB as a whole.
Here’s a recap of Yamamoto’s incredible 2025 season:
Dominating from Regular Season to World Series
Yamamoto quickly established himself as one of the league’s elite pitchers:
First All-Star Game: He was quickly voted into the All-Star Game for the first time in his career.
Dominating the Division Series: He led the National League (NL) with a .183 Batting Average Against (BAA)—the lowest batting average against.
Impressive Pitching Stats: He finished 2nd in the NL with a 2.49 ERA (Earned Run Average) and recorded 201 Strikeouts (K’s), 7th in the league.
Cy Young Candidate: He finished 3rd in the NL Cy Young voting, an incredible feat for a first-year player.
Finals Hero
While his regular-season performance was phenomenal, Yamamoto’s World Series performance was the definition of legendary:
3 Game Wins: He won 3 games in the World Series, an extremely rare number and a key factor in helping the Dodgers achieve back-to-back championships.
World Series MVP: For his dominant performance, Yamamoto was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the World Series.
Game 7 Closed: Most memorably, he came in for the deciding Game 7 and recorded the final 8 outs, helping the Dodgers win and become the first team in 25 years to win back-to-back World Series. That pitch wasn’t just the end of a game, it was the start of a legacy.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s 2025 season was not only one of the greatest by a rookie pitcher in history, but also a testament to the fact that he was a player destined for big moments. The Dodgers now had a superstar, one who had proven that he could carry a team to glory.
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