Major League Baseball fans should probably get used to hearing the name Roki Sasaki because with every outing, he’s looking more and more like the next big-league star out of Japan.
Last week, the 20-year-old Sasaki pitched the first perfect game in the NPB in 28 years when he shut down the Orix Buffaloes with 19 strikeouts. Sasaki nearly followed up the historic effort with ANOTHER perfect game.
During Sunday’s Chiba Lotte Marines game against the Nippon-Ham Fighters, Sasaki went eight perfect innings with 14 strikeouts before he was pulled at 102 pitches. The Marines ended up losing, 1-0, in the 12th inning, which had to be one of the tougher no decisions any pitcher could take.
