Yakyu Cosmopolitan ApRoki Sasaki pitch repertoire Roki Sasaki attributes his historic perfect game to his 18-year-old catcher, Kou Matsukawa /qJgwCK3L1b He averaged 3.9 pitches per batter.īased on game score, a stat developed by Bill James to analyze a pitcher's performance, Sasaki's perfect game earned a 106 score, one point higher than the 105 score earned by Kerry Wood, when he struck out 20 batters against the Astros and allowed one hit and no walks over nine innings. Impressively, Sasaki needed only 105 pitches to retire all 27 batters, even with the 19 strikeouts. During the game, Sasaki struck out 13 batters in a row, also an NPB record and would-be MLB record. Those 19 strikeouts set the record for the most in any game in NPB history, and would have been just shy of the MLB record of 21 set by Tom Cheney in 1962. Roki Sasaki's 19 Strikeout Perfect Game! □ The previous Japanese record was 16 set by Yoshiro Sotokoba of Hiroshima back in 1968. In MLB, Matt Cain (2012) and Sandy Koufax (1965) hold the record for strikeouts in a perfect game at 14. Between the NPB and MLB, it was the most strikeouts in a perfect game thrown. Sasaki's perfect game was the 16th in NPB history and the first in the league since Hiromi Makihara's perfecto back in 1994. Was it the greatest game ever pitched? It certainly has a case for that title. The Sporting News has you covered with five things to know about the Japanese star. Sasaki is quickly becoming one of the most important names in the sport. He has retired 51 batters straight in his last two starts and 52 batters overall, a NPB record. He was pulled for the final innings in a 0-0 game to protect his arm after 102 pitches, with the Marines ultimately winning 1-0 in 10 innings. Sasaki continued his dominance Sunday with eight perfect innings and 14 strikeouts against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. MORE: Reds' Hunter Greene's MLB debut shows elite velocity and command Sasaki has been on the radar of American baseball for a while as one of the top international pitchers in the world for some time, but his perfect game made headlines in a way few since Shohei Ohtani have been able to do. But there has likely never been a more perfect, perfect game than what Roki Sasaki pitched on Sunday.įacing the Orix Buffaloes in the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan, the 20-year-old hurler for the Chiba Lotte Marines retired all 27 batters he faced, including a record-tying 19 via strikeout. In 31 innings, Sasaki has fanned 56 with a 1.16 ERA, including just seven total hits and two walks allowed.There have been plenty of perfect games in professional baseball. After going 3-2 with a 2.27 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 63 1/3 innings as a rookie, he’s taken baseball by storm in 2022. Chiba Lotte shut him down for the entire 2020 season before making his NPB debut on May 16, 2021. The 6-foot-2 righty regularly hits over 100 with his fastball and pairs that with a devastating splitter, or forkball, that viciously drops down at 91. With MLB scouts very interested, Chiba Lotte won a four-team NPB lottery for the rights to sign him with the first overall pick, with the move paying enormous dividends in less than three years. Sasaki showed immediate promise in high school at Iwate’s Ofunato High, where he registered 101.3 miles per hour at a youth national team training camp.Īt the Summer Koshien - the Japanese high school baseball equivalent of men’s and women’s basketball March Madness - during Sasaki’s senior year, he was held out of the regional final due to what his coaches called low bone density in his pitching arm in a controversial move to preserve his future. Sasaki certainly didn’t come out of nowhere.īorn in the northeastern Japanese city of Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture, Sasaki’s father was reportedly tragically swept away and killed in the March 11, 2011, tsunami that ravaged much of the area.
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