Buffaloes ace Yamamoto earns back-to-back Sawamura Awards

Orix Bu aloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been named the top starting pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball for the second year running.

is is only the sixth time that a player has won consecutive Sawamura Awards since its inception in 1947 in honor of legendary Yomiuri Giants hurler Eiji Sawamura. It has been awarded annually except for a handful of years when no pitcher was deemed worthy.

e award selection committee made the announcement for the 2022 regular season in Tokyo on Monday.

Yamamoto’s strong regular-season performance, including a June no-hitter, contributed to the club’s Paci c League title for the second straight season. e Bu aloes are currently battling the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in the Japan Series for the second year in a row. Yamamoto started Saturday’s Game 1 loss to the defending champions.

e 24-year-old right-hander went 15-5 with a 1.68 ERA and 205 strikeouts, leading all pitchers in NPB, to win the pitching Triple

Crown. With 26 appearances and a .750 winning percentage, Yamamoto met ve of the seven benchmarks for the award, the other two being complete games and innings pitched. His season was similar to his award-winning 2021, when he went 18-5 with a 1.39 ERA and 206 strikeouts in 26 games.

Yamamoto will receive ¥3 million and a gold goblet.

“As this award evaluates performance over a single season,” Yamamoto said, “not only does it motivate me, it also makes me very happy.”

e only pitcher to win the award over three consecutive years is the winningest pitcher in NPB history, the late Masaichi Kaneda. e southpaw won the honor from 1956 to 1958 when the 400-game winner was pitching for the then Kokutetsu Swallows.

Paci c League pitchers were rst eligible for the Sawamura Award in 1989, and Yamamoto is the rst pitcher from the league to receive the honor back to back. e previous pitcher to win the award two years in a row was Yomiuri Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano in 2017 and 2018. (Oct. 26)