Roki rocked, Mark Payton socked, Masahiro Tanaka clocked another milestone but not another win on Thursday, when Japanese pro baseball mimicked life in that nobody was perfect, with SoftBank, Yakult and Hanshin all tasting defeat for the first time.

Today, I also have a list of the Japanese pitchers ranked 1 to 20 in career major league strikeouts, not MLB strikeouts but in the world’s major leagues.

Meanwhile, we learned that Shohei Ohtani, in addition to his skill at pitching and hitting, proved himself also capable of some slight of hand.

Thursday’s games

Marines 6, Fighters 1: At Chiba Marine Stadium, taking the mound to chants of “Sasaki, Sasaki,” 21-year-old Roki Sasaki responded to surrendering a one-out line-drive single by retiring the next 17 batters before leaving his regular season debut after 80 pitches and 11 strikeouts.

“He didn’t seem to have any trouble switching between the ball we use and the one in the WBC,” said Lotte manager Masato Yoshii, who served as Japan’s WBC pitching coach.

With the win, his managerial record stands at 3-3 after starting 0-3.

Sasaki, however, suggested the fans chant “Roki” instead of “Sasaki,” so as not to confuse him with Lotte reliever Chihaya Sasaki.

“When they chanted Sasaki at first, I didn’t know they were calling my name,” Sasaki said in a perfect dead-pan delivery. “I eventually figured it out.”

Continue reading NPB news: April 6, 2023 →