Nippon Professional Baseball’s Roki Sasaki (Chiba Lotte) hit 165 kilometers, the fastest pitch ever thrown by a Japanese pitcher.
Sasaki started the game against Hiroshima at Jojo Marine Stadium in Chiba Prefecture on Nov. 11.
He topped out at 165 km/h and pitched seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits with 10 strikeouts. He threw a season-high 109 pitches. The 165-kilometer fastball is the highest by a Japanese pitcher. Shohei Ohtani set the record when he was with Nippon Ham, and Sasaki reached 165 km four times against the Orix on April 28.
Sasaki was perfect until the fourth inning. He walked the first batter he faced with a 159 mph fastball and got the second baseman to foul out. He followed with a three-pitch strikeout and a grounder to second base to end the inning.메이저놀이터
In the second inning, he threw his fastball up to 163 mph and got two strikeouts and a grounder to shortstop to end the inning. The third inning ended with an outfield fly ball and two infield grounders. In the fourth, he continued his perfect game with a grounder to third base, a fly ball to shortstop, and a swinging strikeout.
In the fifth, he gave up a leadoff single to Ryuhei Matsuyama on an infield single. A strikeout, walk, and strikeout put runners on first and second. Davidson singled up the middle to load the bases.
He fouled off a 165 mph fastball to Ryutaro Haskey in the ninth, and allowed a nine-pitch walk to left on a 2B-2S count to put two runners in scoring position. That snapped his streak of 29 consecutive scoreless innings at home. He got out of the inning with runners at first and second on a fly ball to right field.
He struck out the first batter of the sixth inning and induced Sogo Akiyama to swing at a three-pitch slider for a double play, but a wild pitch allowed the ball to slip behind him for an out at first base. With two outs, a single to right put runners on first and third. He struck out Kosuke Tanaka to end the threat.
Gave up a single to Davis with one out in the seventh, but induced the next two batters to ground into consecutive double plays to end the inning.