Friday marked the first time that Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki will square off in an official game. We had five other games, though and I’ll just run through those really quickly.
The DeNA BayStars clobbered the Yomiuri Giants 8-3, the Chunichi Dragons did the same to the Hanshin Tigers 9-2, and the Hiroshima Carp got past Yasuhiro Ogawa (1-1) in a game called in the eighth inning. Ogawa’s throwing error led to the Carp’s only run.
Elsewhere in the Pacific League, Masahiro Tanaka (2-1) struck out seven over five innings, and Rakuten remarkably scored three runs, knocking out Tsuyoshi Wada (1-1) in the Eagles’ 3-0 win over the SoftBank Hawks, while Takayuki Kato (1-2) lost his shutout bid in the ninth on Shuta Tonosaki’s two-run homer but held on for a 100-pitch complete game in the Nippon Ham Fighters’ 5-2 win over the Seibu Lions.
So much for the undercard.
The past two seasons, Yamamoto has led the Pacific League in wins, winning percentage, ERA, innings pitched and strikeouts. He’s won the past two Pacific League MVP awards, and the last two Eiji Sawamura Awards that go to the most impressive starting pitcher across Japanese pro baseball.
The 21-year-old Sasaki is the hardest-throwing starting pitcher in Japan. A year ago in April at the age of 20, he threw a perfect game against Yamamoto’s Orix Buffaloes in which he tied an NPB record by striking out 19, and set another by striking out eight straight batters swinging.
Venue: Zozo Marine Stadium, Chiba, Japan. Game time: 6 p.m. Home plate umpire: Kazuyuki Shirai
Yamamoto done first, allowing one run on one clean single followed by a pair of fluke scratch hits. He struck out nine and walked one over six innings. He deserved a little better.
Sasaki allowed one hit, walked two, and struck out 11 over seven innings, the first four of which he was breathtakingly dominant.
Here he is finishing the first inning with his third K:
Hero interview:
Roki Sasaki
On facing Yamamoto: “I thought if I gave up one run (against Yamamoto) I couldn’t win, so I was completely focused on not allowing even one run.”
On 11 strikeouts: “I was good at first, and then the fielders bailed me out.”
How he felt when Kenta Chatani drove in the first run on a fluke single: “I didn’t think he could do it.”
Kenta Chatani
On his game-winning RBI single: “Like he (Sasaki) said. I thought it was beyond me.”
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