Yoshinobu Yamamoto can win the National League Cy Young Award.

The possibility of Yamamoto doing that has felt increasingly real every time he has stepped on the mound this season, reaching the point in the Dodgers’ 3-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Friday night to where the previously reticent right-hander readily embraced it.

“I’ve heard no Japanese pitcher has won it yet, so I’m awfully interested in it,” Yamamoto said in Japanese. “I think that concentrating on each and every game and performing at my best is what will lead to a wonderful award like that, so I’d like to do my best every day.”

The statement was a reflection of how much has changed for the 26-year-old Yamamoto over the last year.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws against the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium on Friday.

(Kevork Djansezian/For The Times)

The apprehension he exhibited in his first major league season has been replaced by assertiveness, leading to him terrorizing hitters of whom he used to be overly respectful.

He pitched six scoreless innings against the Cubs to improve his record to 2-1 and lower his earned-run average to 1.23.

Yamamoto completely overwhelmed the Cubs, not giving up a hit until the fourth inning and not issuing a walk until the sixth. He struck out nine batters, giving him 37 punchouts in 28 innings for the season.

As reluctant as manager Dave Roberts was to compare Yamamoto to another Japanese pitcher, he said Yamamoto reminded him of Hideo Nomo because of his reliance on his fastball and splitter.

“You have hitters guessing,” Roberts said. “It’s just a split that’s a strike, then it’s a ball that’s a swing and miss or a strikeout there. There’s a good fastball that’s commanded and that’s a lot like Hideo. He doesn’t have the tornado delivery, but it’s a lot like that.”

The start against the Cubs was noteworthy in how comfortable Yamamoto was on the mound. He looked almost as if he was toying with them.

“I think I was able to control my fastball really well and I was able to throw my breaking balls in a good zone, which allowed me to pitch in good counts,” he said. “I think that gave me a lot of options.”

Even when Kyle Tucker advanced to third base in the fourth inning, Yamamoto looked as if he was in control of the situation. Even when Michael Busch worked the count full in that inning, Yamamoto looked as if he was in control.

And he was.

Yamamoto struck out Busch with a splitter for the third out of the inning. The pitch was in the strike zone, meaning that Busch would have still struck out if he had kept the bat on his shoulder.

Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto celebrates with teammates in the dugout following the sixth inning during a win over the Chicago Cubs on Friday at Dodger Stadium.

(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)

Yamamoto’s control is so precise, Fuji Television reporter Yu Suzuki said in Japanese, “He has the luxury of throwing a strike with a 3-2 count.”

Suzuki would know.

A former pitcher for the Orix Buffaloes, the 28-year-old Suzuki was Yamamoto’s teammate for five seasons.

From Suzuki’s vantage point, Yamamoto is “starting to look like the Yoshinobu who pitched in Japan.” Throughout Yamamoto’s injury-plagued rookie season with the Dodgers, Suzuki insisted this would happen.

Suzuki has observed Yamamoto’s greater comfort in the major leagues, noticing how Yamamoto has started changing the intervals between pitches and the speed of his delivery. Suzuki pointed to how Yamamoto is also throwing a wider variety of pitches, which has given him a greater number of ways he can attack hitters.

“This year, he’s mixing in his cutter or two-seamer more,” Suzuki said. “Take tonight. He got a strikeout with a 95-mph two-seamer. When he mixes in a pitch like that, it makes it harder for hitters to sit on particular pitches.”

The ability to throw any pitch in any count is what made Yamamoto a three-time most valuable player in Japan. His showdown against Busch in the fourth inning was one of three at-bats in which the hitter worked the count full. He struck out the batter in each of them.

Yamamoto will continue to improve, Suzuki said.

Mentioning how Yamamoto threw 103 pitches in the six innings he pitched against the Cubs, Suzuki said, “In Japan, he used to pitch eight or nine innings like this, except he would do it in 110 pitches. I still think the pitch count is a little high by Yoshinobu’s standards. The real Yoshinobu can throw this many pitches and get through eight or nine innings.”

That wouldn’t just make him a candidate for the Cy Young Award. That would make him a lock.