Yoshinobu Yamamoto closed out a great season with the Los Angeles Dodgers after his last outing on Thursday to win the AL West pennant.

Yamamoto finished with 6.0 scoreless innings and seven strikeouts to earn his 12th victory of the season.

The Japanese pitcher closed the 2025 regular season with 12 wins, 8 losses, a 2.49 ERA, 201 strikeouts, a 0.99 whip, a 167 ERA+, and the fewest hits allowed per nine innings (5.9).

The Japanese pitcher became the 22nd pitcher in Dodgers history with 200 or more strikeouts in a season. Yamamoto is the first to achieve this goal since Walker Buehler did it in 2021.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto becomes the seventh Japanese pitcher with a 200-strikeout season. For the fourth consecutive year, a Japanese pitcher has managed to reach 200 strikeouts: Shohei Ohtani (2022), Kodai Senga (2023), Yusei Kikuchi (2024) and Yamamoto (2025).

Yoshinobu Yamamoto joins the legend Bob Gibson

The Japanese joined a great pitching legend like Bob Gibson in 2025 with his great pitching numbers.

Since the effectiveness became official in both leagues in 1913, Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the second MLB pitcher to have a season with:

Only Bob Gibson achieved these numbers in the 1968 season. Gibson won the Cy Young and the NL MVP wearing the St. Louis Cardinals uniform.

Yamamoto is possibly among the finalists for the NL Cy Young Award, but will have little chance of win it against the great campaign of Paul Skenes.

Although the Japanese is ready for the postseason that begins next week in a rotation alongside Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow.