Japan's Tokyo Olympic ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw the year's fourth no-hitter and the 97th in Japanese pro baseball on Saturday, pitching the Orix Buffaloes to a 2-0 Pacific League win over the Seibu Lions.
It is the first time four no-hitters have been thrown in a single Japanese season since 1943. The Lions became the first team to be no-hit twice in a season since their predecessors the Nishitetsu Lions in 1971.
Yamamoto (7-3), the 2021 winner of the Sawamura Award for Japan's most impressive starting pitcher, needed 102 pitches to complete his gem. He walked one batter and struck out nine at Seibu's Belluna Dome, outside Tokyo.