Shohei Otani ratcheted up the radar gun from the mound and earned the victory on Saturday as the Pacific League All-Stars beat their Central League counterparts 12-6 to earn a split of this summer's All-Star Series.
Otani, of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, got the better of his starting matchup with fellow 20-year-old Shintaro Fujinami of the Hanshin Tigers in Game 2 at Hyogo Prefecture's historic Koshien Stadium, where the two once locked horns as high schoolers.
Otani twice equaled the speed of the fastest pitch thrown in Japan league play (162 kph) in his one-inning stint. The right-hander allowed one run on three hits, while striking out one. The record for the fastest pitch in a league game is 162 kph, set by reliever Marc Kroon of the Yomiuri Giants in 2008. The fastest official pitch by a Japanese pitcher was 161 kph by the Yakult Swallows' Yoshinori Sato in 2010.