Some believe rising baseball star Roki Sasaki’s perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes at Zozo Marine Stadium on April 10 was the greatest game ever pitched.
Sasaki didn’t just retire all 27 batters who came to the plate, he struck out 19 of them — the most in a perfect game in either NPB or MLB. At one point he fanned 13 straight to blow past the previous NPB record of nine set in 1957 and tied in 1958 (the MLB mark is 10).
He started the streak against the Buffaloes’ Masataka Yoshida, who finished the season with the third-fewest strikeouts (41) in NPB. At 20 years and five months, Sasaki became the youngest NPB pitcher to throw a perfect game.