Are There Limits to Pitching Perfection? Roki Sasaki Will Find Out.

Any time a pitcher returns to the mound after a no-hitter or excellent recreation, the title Johnny Vander Meer is evoked. In 1938, Vander Meer adopted up one no-hitter with one other in his subsequent begin for the Cincinnati Reds.

In fact, regardless of the predictable anticipation, nobody has matched Vander Meer’s feat within the main leagues.

However Roki Sasaki very practically did it in Japan, following an ideal recreation — the uncommon feat of retiring all 27 batters in a recreation with out permitting a base runner — with eight extra excellent innings this week earlier than being pulled.

The close to document triggered a fuss each in Japan and america, and has many in baseball eagerly anticipating his subsequent begin, anticipated on Sunday, when his Chiba Lotte Marines tackle the Orix Buffaloes on the Kyocera Dome in Osaka.

At 20 years previous and with a 100-mile-an-hour fastball, Sasaki was already on many main league scouts’ radar. However they may not have foreseen the dazzling performances of his final two begins.

His excellent recreation on April 10 was the primary within the Japanese majors since 1994. Sasaki struck out 19 batters, finishing a recreation for the ages.

The 6-0 victory for the Marines over Orix was the primary full recreation of his profession.

On Sunday, Sasaki was, amazingly, unhittable once more. He threw eight excellent innings with 14 strikeouts in opposition to the Nippon Ham Fighters. However he couldn’t get any run assist, and with the rating 0-0 heading into the ninth, Supervisor Tadahito Iguchi of the Marines determined 102 pitches was sufficient.

“I feel I did my job,” Sasaki advised Asahi Shimbun in an epic understatement. “I left the mound, and I used to be satisfied” by the choice to drag him. The Fighters received in 10 innings, 1-0.

“A document is a document, however it is very important get the win and for Roki to firmly keep within the crew’s pitching rotation for the 12 months,” Iguchi mentioned.

Counting an out he received on the finish of the beginning earlier than his perfecto, Sasaki has now retired 52 consecutive batters. The document for Main League baseball is 46 by Yusmeiro Petit of the Giants, largely in reduction, in 2014.

Sasaki grew up in Iwate Prefecture in Japan’s northeast. His father was killed within the 2011 tsunami, and his home was swept away. “It’s been 11 years however I can’t simply erase the agony and disappointment I felt on the time,” Sasaki advised Kyodo Information final month.

After success in highschool, he was dealt with rigorously by the Marines, not pitching in any respect in 2020 whereas he did a power coaching program. He appeared in simply 11 video games in 2021, with a 4-2 document and a 1.84 E.R.A., earlier than a deliberate full load this 12 months. Along with his 100 m.p.h. heater, Sasaki throws a extremely touted splitter.

Regardless of Sasaki’s heroics, the Marines, based mostly in Chiba Metropolis about 25 miles east of Tokyo, are off to a gradual begin and are beneath .500. Assuming Sasaki begins Sunday, as anticipated (midnight Jap time, 9 p.m. Pacific on Saturday), he’ll face the Buffaloes, the crew that knocked the Marines out within the semifinals of final 12 months’s playoffs.

Can Sasaki spin one other masterpiece? It hardly appears not possible: He was already excellent in opposition to the Buffaloes as soon as, and Orix is a sub-.500 crew that has scored the fewest runs in Japan thus far this season, a mean of simply 2.5 a recreation.