Rocky Sasaki (22, Chiba Lotte), the “monster pitcher” of the Japanese baseball team, showed off his strength in his first actual appearance this year.
According to Japanese media such as Sports Hochi, Sasaki started on the 15th in an evaluation match against Yakult held in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. He played an active part in 2 innings with 1 hit and 5 strikeouts and no runs, and the highest fastball speed was 160 km. 29 pitches. 바카라사이트
From the first inning, Sasaki made a clean three-way strike inning. Then, as the first batter in the second inning, he met Munetaka Murakami (23), a fellow member of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) national team and who hit the most home runs (56) by a Japanese player last season. Against Murakami, the core of Japan’s line-up, he struck out with a 160km/h fastball.
Sasaki, who is expected to be Japan’s next-generation ace, showed off his good condition from the first evaluation match. He also threw a 160km fastball in bullpen pitching last week. In his last season, he surprised baseball players around the world with his highest speed of 164 km.
Sasaki achieved his youngest perfect game at the age of 20 years and 5 months in April of last year against the Orix Buffaloes of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He struck out 13 batters in a row without giving up a single hit and 4 walks, striking out a total of 19 batters, bringing a new wave to Japanese baseball.
Sasaki, who has embarked on the 2023 WBC Japan team, is expected to take on the starting role alongside Yu Darvish (San Diego), Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels), and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix). It is also being discussed as a selection candidate for the March 10 Korean War.
Japan competes against Korea, Australia, the Czech Republic and China in the WBC Group B to advance to the second round. Prior to the match against Korea, they will play their first round 1 match against China on March 9th.