Roki Sasaki looked up at the video board during his warmups in right field and couldn’t conceal a smile — he’d noticed a friend cheering in the stands as the camera panned the crowd at Zozo Marine Stadium on Saturday.
In the moment with that grin on his face, Sasaki looked like any other 20-year-old. When he was on the mound pitching in the biggest game of his life a little while later, however, Sasaki just looked like the “Monster of the Reiwa Era,” who some believe won’t have an equal in NPB in the future.
Sasaki wasn't perfect but he lived up to the hype with 10 strikeouts over six strong innings in his postseason debut for the Chiba Lotte Marines, who won Game 1 of the Pacific League Climax Series First Stage against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 5-4 on Toshiya Sato’s sayonara double. Sasaki didn’t factor in the decision.