Brewers legend gives bold prediction on Dodgers after Yoshinobu Yamamoto's elite display in Tokyo Series 

Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched five innings of solid work against the Chicago Cubs that earned him and the LA Dodgers the win. The Dodgers won 4-1 on the back of the Japanese pitcher earning just one run on three hits and one walk and striking out four.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto had inconsistent spells in his rookie regular season in 2024 but had a strong postseason emerging as the team's ace in their successful World Series winning campaign.

He picked up from where he left inducing 11 swinging strikes throughout the game using a fastball that reached 98 mph and the disappearing splitter at 93-94 mph that shows no change in his arm's motion. Barring Miguel Amaya's RBI double, Yamamoto showed consistency.

Per Milwaukee Brewers legend and MLB analyst Dan Plesac, Yamamoto's dominant performance pushes him toward an elite crop of pitchers in the league. He added that a strong season by the 26-year-old could propel the Dodgers to 100+ wins.

"That's great fastball-slider come out of the same plane. One is there, and one, when you start to swing, it disappears. And you know, we talk about saying it with [Kodai Senga's] ghost slider. I don't know what this one is. This is the disappearing one. If he's throwing strikes and he's commanding the strike zone, this guy is one of the elite pitchers in baseball," Plesac said via MLB Network.

"Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to see enough of him last year because he was on the aisle with a couple of different injuries. But we saw in the postseason what he can do, and if this is any indication of what he can do that pitching staff, maybe I'm leaning towards well over 100 wins," he added.

The Dodgers have five 100+ winning seasons in the last eight years. Despite earning the best record in MLB last year, they fell short of the mark at 98, breaking their three-season record.

Dave Roberts hoping for Cy Young-winning caliber season from Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Yoshinobu Yamamoto's display in front of the home fans at Tokyo Dome certainly gave confidence to manager Dave Roberts and the rest of the staff. As per Roberts, speaking after the game, Yamamoto could be in contention for the NL Cy Young win.

"If he can do that, obviously health [permitting], I see no reason why he won't be in the Cy Young conversation," Roberts said via TheScore.com.

Yamamoto certainly redeemed himself after a damaging one-inning, five-run game against the San Diego Padres in the Seoul Series, the 2024 opener.