Nippon Professional Baseball ‘monster pitcher’ Sasaki Loki (Chiba Lotte Marines) showed off his power in his first real game.

On the 15th (hereinafter Korean time), Rocky Sasaki started a practice game against the Yakult Swallows at Itoman Baseball Stadium in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and had 29 pitches, 1 hit, 5 strikeouts and no runs in 2 innings.

Sasaki established himself as a representative pitcher of Japanese professional baseball by achieving a ‘perfect game’ against the Orix Buffaloes last year. And based on an excellent record of 9-4 and an average ERA of 2.02 in 20 games (129⅓ innings), he was also named in the final list of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) national team to be held in March. 메이저놀이터

Sasaki, who improved her physical condition in line with the WBC, staged a show of force by throwing a 160km fast ball in live pitching on the 9th. And on the 15th, in the first actual game against Yakult, he showed off a no-nonsense pitching, such as taking two fast balls with a maximum speed of 160 km/h.

Sasaki started the game by throwing a fast ball of 157 km against lead batter Kazuya Maruyama in the top of the first inning, striking out on a swing and making the first out count. Sasaki then struck out with a slider at the end of a 4-pitch match with WBC catcher Yuhei Nakamura, and also struck out Soma Uchiyama, ending the first inning with a three-way strike.

The biggest interest in the game that day was the match against ’56 home run’ Murakami Munetaka. Sasaki showed Murakami a fast ball with a 159km first pitch, and then two forkballs made the ball count 1B-2S. And on the 4th pitch, he pierced himself with a 160km fast ball and struck out 4 batters in a row.

Sasaki allowed a hit on the first pitch against follow-up hitter Hideki Nagaoka, but after a 8-pitch match against follow-up hitter Takeshi Nagaoka Miyamoto and shortstop Nobuyuki Okumura, he struck out with a 146km forkball and went down the mound after finishing the inning with no runs.

On the other hand, Sasaki participates in the Japanese national team training camp starting on the 17th in Miyazaki, and after playing 6 practice games with Japanese professional clubs, he will start his WBC schedule in earnest.