Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the 23-year-old ace pitcher of the Pacific League champion Orix Buffaloes and the Olympic gold medal-winning Japan national team, won the Eiji Sawamura Award as Japan’s most impressive starting pitcher for the first time on Monday. Yamamoto won 18 games with a 1.39 ERA over 193-2/3 innings while notching 206 strikeouts, completing six games and throwing four shutouts, all league-leading figures, while posting a league-best .783 win percentage as well. “You can’t even try to compare Yamamoto with other pitchers,” said the award committee’s chair, former Yomiuri Giants ace Ts…