Unleashing the Samurai Ace: Inside Yamamoto's Meteoric Rise in Year Two with Dodgers

“Certainly there’s a lot of talent,” Roberts said of Yamamoto. “But it just speaks to how great he wants to be, his own expectations, the work that he puts in to continue to stay at the top of this game.”

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Beyond the work, Yamamoto’s transformation has, in the view of many around the team, also come down to a few simple things: more confidence in himself, more comfort in his surroundings and more conviction on the mound.

“Today’s stuff was obviously a little bit of a struggle,” Yamamoto, ever-modest, said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda after Friday’s start. “But if I evaluate my stuff up to this game, it [hasn’t been] bad.”

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