Tag Archives: Roki Sasaki

Roki Sasaki vs Yoshinobu Yamamoto

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.”

Continue reading Roki Sasaki vs Yoshinobu Yamamoto

NPB news: April 13, 2023 — prelude

There were two games Thursday in Japan, but the nation’s fans could be forgiven for looking ahead to Friday, when two great matchups beckoned. In Chiba, the two best pitchers of this generation, Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, will go head-to-head for the first time.

in Sendai, Masahiro Tanaka, who closed out Game 7 of the 2013 Japan Series the year he went 24-0 in the regular season, will go up against 42-year-old lefty Tsuyoshi Wada, who as a youngster threw a complete game victory to clinch Game 7 of the 2013 Japan Series.

But there were games and there was news. Seibu’s Tatsuya Imai flirted with a no hitter, Hanshin’s Sheldon Neuse went really deep for the second straight day, and while a day after it seemed Japan’s WBC pitchers were cursed by getting batted around by their national team teammates, website CoCoKara published a story: “The pace of Japan’s WBC falling dominos show no sign of slowing.”

Dominos

The story led with Swallows second baseman Tetsuto Yamada coming out of Wednesday’s game after running the bases in the fourth inning. Japan first baseman Hotaka Yamakawa is out with injury as is Seibu teammate and Japan shortstop Sosuke Genda, whose broken finger suffered in the WBC has not healed, while new Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida has been sidelined with discomfort in his right hamstring.

Thursday’s games

Lions 2, Marines 0: At Omiya Park Stadium, Tatsuya Imai (2-0) kept his ERA at 0.00 in his first shutout in four years, a 138-pitch, 11 strikeout effort in which he gave up two late hits, walked three and allowed two walks.

Continue reading NPB news: April 13, 2023 — prelude