Nippon Professional Baseball’s Roki Sasaki (22, Chiba Lotte) is getting better and better at striking out batters.
Sasaki has been turning batters like leaves in the wind with his 160+ mph fastball and 140 mph forkball. Since May, his strikeout rate has reached 50 percent.
Sasaki suffered his first loss of the season against Hanshin in an exchange game on April 4, but he struck out 10. She allowed just one hit in six innings, walking four and striking out 10 to take the loss. Lotte Chiba took the 0-2 loss.
She pitched a no-hitter through five innings, striking out nine. She only gave up four hits and four walks. After walking the leadoff batter in the sixth, she allowed the only run on a stolen base, a wild pitch, and a single.
Sasaki is now 4-1 with a 1.23 ERA in seven appearances this season. In 44 innings pitched, he has allowed 17 hits, walked 10 and struck out 69. In mid-May, he was sidelined for over 20 days with a blistered finger. As a result, he hasn’t pitched a full season’s worth of innings (48).
The Pacific League leader in ERA is Hiroya 스포츠토토 Miyagi (22) of the Orioles at 1.68. Sasaki is first in ERA away from home. Sasaki leads the league in strikeouts with 69. He is ahead of teammate Atsuki Taneichi (65).
In strikeouts, Sasaki is dominant. The third-year pro has 69 strikeouts in seven games this season, facing 161 batters. That’s a whopping 14.11 strikeouts per nine innings. His strikeout rate is 42.9%.
Last year, he faced 490 batters in 20 games and struck out 173. That’s 12.04 strikeouts per nine innings and a 35.3% walk rate. Dr. K has been even better this year than last.
Sasaki represented Japan at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March, going 1-0 with a 3.52 ERA and 11 strikeouts in two games (7⅔ innings) to help Japan win the tournament. In her first start of the season, she tossed six innings of 11-strikeout ball and recorded 10+ Ks four times in seven appearances.
In four games in April, he struck out 38 batters against 98 batters for a 38.7% strikeout rate. In the three games since May, he has 31 strikeouts against 63 batters for a whopping 49.2% strikeout rate. That’s a strikeout every two batters.