Major League Baseball fans might want to learn the name Roki Sasaki.
Sasaki is a 20-year-old pitcher for the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, and on Sunday he authored one of the greatest pitching performances you’ll ever see.
The right-hander tossed a perfect game — the first in NPB in 28 years — and struck out 19 batters, including 13 in a row at one point. The 19 K’s tied a league record, as Sasaki dominated the Orix Buffaloes from start to finish while throwing 105 pitches.
MLB is widely considered the top baseball league in the world, so it’s admittedly difficult to compare Sasaki’s gem to single-game masterpieces we’ve seen in the United States. But Sasaki’s Game Score — a metric created by Bill James to measure a pitcher’s performance — paints an impressive picture.
Sasaki’s Game Score was 106 — a truly remarkable number.
“For perspective, the highest Game Score in Major League Baseball last season was the 99 pitched by Baltimore Orioles left-hander John Means in May when he no-hit the Seattle Mariners in an outing that saw him nearly toss a perfect game,” CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson wrote Monday. “Furthermore, the highest game score in MLB since the last round of expansion belongs to former Chicago Cubs phenom Kerry Wood (105), who struck out 20 Houston Astros as part of a one-hitter back in May 1998.”
Of course, it’s tough to say definitively this was the best pitching performance of all time. One must take into account the stakes, the venue, the level of competition and various other factors when evaluating such. But statistically speaking, it’s hard to top what Sasaki just accomplished.
So, will see see Sasaki in MLB anytime soon? Not necessarily, as Sasaki might be able to maximize his earnings by waiting until he’s 25, with six years of professional experience. But his tool box — including an electric fastball that averaged nearly triple digits Sunday — is tantalizing, no doubt.
