, nicknamed is a Japanese professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the

Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural ...

of the

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

(NPB). He made his NPB debut in 2021. Sasaki set a new Japanese high school baseball record with a

fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. "Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thro ...

recorded at . The Marines chose Sasaki in the first overall selection of the 2019 NPB

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

. Taking care to avoid subjecting their rookie to premature physical stresses, the Marines held back until the 2021 season before allowing him to make his NPB debut. He threw a

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

on April 10, 2022, in which he tied the NPB record for

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s in one game and set a new record for consecutive strikeouts.

Early life

Sasaki is from

Rikuzentakata is a city located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. In the census of 2010, the city had a population of 23,302 (2005: 24,709), and a population density of 100 persons per km². The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami caused extensive damage to the c ...

in the

Iwate Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefectur ...

. Born in 2001, he was named after the villain Rouki from ''

Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger is Toei's twenty-fifth production of the ''Super Sentai'' metaseries airing in 2001 and celebrated the franchise's 25th anniversary. Footage from this show was used in the 2002 American series '' Power Rangers Wild Force'' and was later dubbed ...

'', a

Super Sentai is a Japanese superhero team metaseries and media franchise consisting of television series and films produced by Toei Company, and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi ("Sentai" is the Japanese word for "task force" or "fighting squadron"). The sho ...

show that was aired in the same year. He was in the

third grade Third grade (also called grade three, equivalent to Year 4 in England) is a year of primary education in many countries. It is the third school year of primary school. Students are usually 8–9 years old. Examples of the American syllabus *In ...

during the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake. The resulting

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

swept away his house. His father and grandparents died, and Sasaki, his mother, and his two brothers had to live in a

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to in ...

during the recovery. The family moved to Ōfunato the next year and Sasaki began to play baseball at his new school.

Amateur career

Though Sasaki was recruited by other high schools, he chose to attend Ofunato High School to remain with his teammates. He was nicknamed "the Monster of the

Reiwa is the current era of Japan's official calendar. It began on 1 May 2019, the day on which Emperor Akihito's elder son, Naruhito, ascended the throne as the 126th Emperor of Japan. The day before, Emperor Akihito abdicated the Chrysanthemum ...

Era" ( ) because of his

in high school. His fastball velocity broke the Japanese high school record set by

Shohei Ohtani , nicknamed "Shotime", is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher, designated hitter and outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional B ...

, and Sasaki began to earn comparisons to Ohtani. His nickname is a reference to

Daisuke Matsuzaka is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher, who pitched professionally for 23 seasons, 16 of them in NPB, 7 in MLB. He is currently a baseball color commentator, critic, reporter, and YouTuber. Daisuke is nicknamed in Japan and "Dice-K ...

, who was known as "the Monster of the

Heisei The is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Emeritus Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito, ...

Era".

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) teams hoped that Sasaki would pursue an MLB career, but he opted to remain with his high school team during the

Japanese High School Baseball Championship The of Japan, commonly known as , is an annual nationwide high school baseball tournament. It is the largest scale amateur sport event in Japan. The tournament, organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation and ''Asahi Shimbun'', t ...

. Sasaki's

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

rested him in the qualifying game where Ofunato was eliminated, drawing criticism. Sasaki announced that he would pitch in

(NPB), declaring for the NPB

Professional career

After four teams attempted to select Sasaki in the 2019 NPB draft, the

of NPB's

Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consis ...

won the lottery for the rights to the first overall selection, and selected Sasaki. He received a

signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee (including a professional sports person) by a company as an incentive to join that company. They are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive ...

of . To protect his arm, the Marines did not allow Sasaki to appear in a game during the 2020 season. He made his NPB debut on May 16, 2021. For the 2021 season, Sasaki had a 3–2 win-loss record, a 2.27

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA), and 68

s in

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one innin ...

across 11 appearances. Sasaki made his postseason debut for the Marines in the

2021 Pacific League Climax Series The 2021 Pacific League Climax Series (PLCS) was a set of two consecutive playoff series in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The First Stage began on November 6 and the Final Stage concluded on November 12. The First Stage was a best-of-three s ...

, striking out 10 batters while allowing one

run Run(s) or RUN may refer to: Places * Run (island), one of the Banda Islands in Indonesia * Run (stream), a stream in the Dutch province of North Brabant People * Run (rapper), Joseph Simmons, now known as "Reverend Run", from the hip-hop group ...

in six innings, as Lotte defeated the

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles The , often shortened as the , are a baseball team based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It has played in Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League since the team's formation in November 2004. The team is owned by the Internet shopping c ...

On April 10, 2022, Sasaki pitched a

against the

Orix Buffaloes The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefectur ...

. It was the 16th perfect game in NPB history, the first since

Hiromi Makihara Hiromi Makihara (born August 11, 1963) is a former Nippon Professional Baseball pitcher. He was a six-time Central League All-Star, won Rookie of the Year honors, and pitched a perfect game in a 19-year career with the Yomiuri Giants The ...

's perfect game in 1994, and the 94th

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

in NPB history, the first since August 15, 2020. Sasaki tied the NPB record set by Koji Noda for total strikeouts in one game, with 19, and set a new NPB record for consecutive strikeouts, having struck out 13 batters in a row. This also became a new world record, beating out the 10 consecutive strikeouts achieved in MLB by

Corbin Burnes Corbin Brian Burnes (born October 22, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was drafted by the Brewers in the fourth round of the 2016 Major League Baseball draft, and mad ...

Tom Seaver George Thomas Seaver (November 17, 1944 – August 31, 2020), nicknamed "Tom Terrific" and "the Franchise", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the New York Mets, Cinc ...

, and Aaron Nola. In his next start, on April 17, Sasaki pitched eight perfect innings against the

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaidō. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the majority of their home games at ES CON Field Hokkaido. The Fighters also host a ...

, before getting taken out from the game before the ninth inning by manager

Tadahito Iguchi , nicknamed "Gucci", is a Japanese served professional baseball second baseman and from manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). As a member of the Chicago White Sox in 2005, Iguchi became the first Japanese-bor ...

to protect Sasaki's health. He recorded 14 strikeouts on 102 pitches, including striking out the side in the eighth inning with a 101 mph fastball. Sasaki finished the outing having retired 52 consecutive batters, setting an NPB record. The MLB record for retiring consecutive batters is 46 by

Yusmeiro Petit Yusmeiro Alberto Petit (; born November 22, 1984) is a Venezuelan professional baseball pitcher who is currently a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants, Washi ...

. Sasaki allowed a hit on the first pitch that he threw in his next game, on April 24. He finished the season 9–4 with a 2.02 ERA and 173 strikeouts in innings pitched. On April 28, 2023, Sasaki threw 4 pitches at a speed of 165 km/h (102.5 mph), which tied the record of the fastest pitch thrown in NPB history (alongside

International career

Sasaki pitched for the

Japanese national baseball team The is the national team representing Japan in international baseball competitions. It won the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009, as well as WBSC Premier12 in 2019. The team is currently ranked 1st in the world by the World Baseball Soft ...

in the

2023 World Baseball Classic The 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), an international professional baseball tournament, is set to be the fifth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. It was originally set for 2021 (as per tradition to hold the event every four years), but wa ...

Playing style

Sasaki listed at 6 ft 4 in (1.92 m) and . A right-handed pitcher with a three-quarters delivery, he throws a fastball topping out at . In 2022 season, his fastball averaged as a starter. He also throws a

forkball The forkball is a type of pitch in baseball. Related to the split-finger fastball, the forkball is held between the first two fingers and thrown hard, snapping the wrist. The forkball differs from the split-fingered fastball, however, in tha ...

, a

curveball In baseball and softball, the curveball is a type of pitch thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball, causing it to dive as it approaches the plate. Varieties of curveball include the 12–6 curve ...

, and a

slider Slider or Sliders may refer to: Arts * K.K. Slider, a fictional character within the ''Animal Crossing'' franchise * '' The Slider'', a 1972 album by T. Rex * ''Sliders'' (TV series), an American science fiction and fantasy television series * ...

. The forkball is the best

off-speed pitch In baseball, an off-speed pitch is a pitch thrown at a slower speed than a fastball. Breaking balls and changeups are the two most common types of off-speed pitches. Very slow pitches which require the batter to provide most of the power on cont ...

in his arsenal.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sasaki, Roki 2001 births Living people Baseball people from Iwate Prefecture Chiba Lotte Marines players Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers who have pitched a perfect game 2023 World Baseball Classic players