Right-handed pitcher Rocky Sasaki of the Japanese national baseball team improved his physical condition by 메이저놀이터throwing a fastball at 160 km/h one month before the first game of the 2023 World Baseball Classic WBC.
Japanese media such as Nikkan Sports said, “Sasaki threw a 160 km/h fastball at his team’s spring camp live pitching held in Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan today.”
Nikkan Sports added, “Sasaki threw the WBC official ball for the first time and checked his physical condition by pitching 30 balls, including a fastball and a forkball, against 6 batters.”
The Japanese national team will play the first match of the 1st round against China today (9th) in March, and Sasaki showed off a quick ball that can only be seen in actual matches and was in good condition.
Sasaki is the next generation ace of Japanese baseball.
His highest fastball velocity reaches 164 km/h, and his forkball velocity is in the 140 km/h range, which is comparable to that of other pitchers.
Armed with a fastball, Sasaki has established himself as one of the best pitchers in Japanese professional baseball.
In April of last year, he achieved a ‘perfect game’ in which no batter was on base against Orix, a Japanese professional baseball team.
Sasaki is expected to play an active role as a starting resource for the Japanese national team, including major league superstars Shohei Ohtani and Yu Darvish.
Korea will play against Japan in the first round of the WBC finals at Tokyo Dome, Japan on March 10th at 7pm.