TOKYO — When Roki Sasaki signed with the Dodgers, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman revealed that one of Sasaki's goals was to become the first Japanese pitcher to win a Cy Young Award.

Another pitcher on the Dodgers could steal that distinction from Sasaki, and the most likely candidate might not even be Shohei Ohtani.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto could beat his two countrymen to the honor, and considering how he pitched in the Dodgers' season-opening 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome, who's to say he won't?

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

This wasn't the pitcher who looked unsure of himself over an up-and-down regular season last year. This was the pitcher who was an October hero.

Yamamoto touched 98 mph with his fastball. He baited hitters with splitters that looked like strikes but actually weren't. He limited the Cubs to one run and three hits over five innings.

The performance confirmed what Dodgers players and coaches had said in spring training: The 26-year-old Yamamoto returned for his second major league season a different pitcher.

"You know he's electric when his teammates that are professional pitchers are telling you, 'Hey, Doc, watch him,' " team physician Neal ElAttrache told Jack Harris and I on The Los Angeles Times' video podcast Dodgers Debate.

ElAttrache said he complimented rehabilitating veteran Clayton Kershaw after a recent long-toss session, and Kershaw told him, "You want to see something special, watch Yamamoto do this."

Yamamoto pointed to an improved feel for his pitching mechanics as to why he's looked the way he has.

"I threw with a good center of gravity, good balance," Yamamoto said in Japanese. "I wasn't trying to throw with greater strength than usual, but I thought I was able to throw pitches to which my strength was transferred."

What made him special on Tuesday night was what he did with those pitches.

"I think that last year to this year, the confidence, the conviction that he has in throwing the fastball in the strike zone, he's much more convicted," Roberts said.

The Dodgers' postseason run that ended with a World Series championship is why, according to Yamamoto.

"What I experienced in that month really made me confident," Yamamoto said. "If I do this, I'll get hit. If I feel like this and do this, I'll be able to hold them. I didn't have a precise feel for that last season, but I gained that sense in October."

His average fastball velocity was 96.8 mph against the Cubs, up from his season average of 95.5 mph last year, according to data from Major League Baseball's Statcast system.

The fastball alone troubled the Cubs. Throw in his splitter and they had little to no chance.

"His splits were outstanding tonight," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. "They're 93-94 [mph] on the split finger. It's a pitch that you hope to get a couple of free ones on because they're out of the zone. But he threw so many competitive splits. It's a really tough pitch to lay off."

The uncertainty with Yamamoto pertains to whether he can stay healthy. He was sidelined for nearly three months last year because of shoulder problems.

"He had the kind of injury that if you catch it early, you can prevent it from going south," ElAttrache said. "When that injury goes south, it can be pretty significant.

"When we explained to him what we needed to do and why, he wasn't happy about sitting for that length of time. He was constantly saying that he felt good enough to come back, but he went along with it.

"I think that you see how he played towards the end of the season. He was really important for us."

Yamamoto had a disastrous postseason debut, giving up five runs in three innings to the San Diego Padres in the opening game of the NL Division Series. However, counting his victory in Game 5 of that series, he went 2-0 with a 1.72 earned-run average over his next three playoff starts.

"I feel that's connected to the confidence I have when I take the mound [now]," Yamamoto said.

Standing 5 feet 10, Yamamoto doesn't have the physical frame of either Ohtani or Sasaki. He doesn't throw as hard. But he could be a better pitcher than either of them, and that could earn him his own place in history.

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