Roki Sasaki (23), the “monster pitcher” who appeared on the mound after 23 days, threw a fastball with a maximum speed of 164 km/h. On the 28th, as a starter in an away game against the Softbank Hawks held at the Fukuoka Dome, he pitched 6 innings, 3 hits and 2 runs. He threw a total of 82 balls against 22 batters. He gave up one walk, and struck out nine. He went 0–4 in the season, and his earned run average went up from 0.84 to 1.18.메이저사이트
He got off to a fresh start.
At the end of the first inning, batters 1 to 3 were treated as consecutive offenses. The first strike, thrown against Akira Nakamura in No. 1, hit 160 km/h. He caught Nakamura with a shortstop grounder and struck out No. 2 Taisei Makihara and No. 3 Kondo Kensuke swinging and missing.
All three breaking balls thrown against Makihara turned into balls and were driven to 3B. After that, he threw three fastballs at 160 km/h in succession and caught them with strikeouts. The ball that was fouled in the bull count took 163 km per hour. Kondo pulled the bat with a forkball from 2B.
In the bottom of the second inning, he completely dominated the center batting line. He struck out Yuki Yanagita 4th and Ryoya Kurihara 5th with a ground ball to the second baseman and Tatsuru Yanagimachi with a swing miss in the 6th.
At the bottom of the third inning, he struck out Hakaru Kawase in the 7th, Freddy Galvis in the 8th, and Takuya Guy in the 9th in a row. Against Guy, a low fastball thrown from 2S hit 164 km/h.
Softbank, who withdrew with 9 batters in a row until the 3rd inning, launched a counterattack at the bottom of the 4th inning. Leading batsman No. 1 Nakamura
Chiba Lotte Sasaki made his first start in 22 days against Softbank on the 28th. Photo source = Chiba Lotte Marines website
opened the door with an infield hit, and Makihara hit a triple with a one-run advantage. One point was added with a sacrifice hit by Kondo at No. 3 at third base.
Sasaki made a triple-trial in the fifth inning, allowed one hit and no run in the sixth inning, and was replaced. He passed the mound in the 7th inning, leading 6-2.
Sasaki recorded 5 no hits and no runs in 5 innings against Softbank on the 5th. He came down the mound with 12 strikeouts against 17 batters through the fifth inning. He suffered a blister in his right middle finger and he was substituted after throwing 89 pitches. He took a break of over 20 days treating a finger blister.
Prior to the Fukuoka expedition, Sasaki threw 20 pitches from the bullpen at Chiba Marine Stadium on the 26th. Manager Masato Yoshii said, “The skin on his fingers has returned to normal. He won’t put a limit on the number of pitches, but he will watch the situation.”
Chiba Lotte batting line lightened Sasaki’s shoulders. In the top of the first inning, lead batter Light Ikeda hit a heavy hit, and Shogo Nakamura hit a two-run homer in the third. At the beginning of the second inning, Nakamura left again on first and second bases.
Sasaki, who competed as the WBC Japan representative. Photo source = Japan National Baseball Team website
I hit a timely hit and added 1 point. 3-0. In the top of the 7th inning when they were trailing 3-2, 4th Gregory Polanco hit a 3-run home run.
Chiba Lotte, who won 9-5, is leading the Pacific League. They are 1.5 games ahead of the second-place Orix Buffaloes.
Nippon Professional Baseball will start an exchange match between the two leagues from the 29th.