A new record has been set in Japanese baseball.
2016 might be the year of pitchers who rake in the U.S. — from Bartolo Colon to Madison Bumgarner — but there’s a different flamethrower making headlines in Japan.
Two-way star Shohei Otani has put up a 2.06 ERA while crushing 22 home runs this season.
Now he can add throwing the fastest pitch in NPB history to his accomplishments.
In Tuesday’s game, Otani threw a 164 kph fastball, roughly 101.9 mph. He beat the previous record, set by himself, of 163 kph.
He makes it look easy.
As previously mentioned, Otani is pretty good at the plate. The flamethrower extended his hit streak to 15 games in this affair.
Otani has 142 strikeouts over 118 innings as a starter. While setting the previous record back in June, he threw 31 pitches between 98-101 mph in a game.
Can you imagine if he was playing in the MLB? We’d get to see this action so much more.
Jaclyn Marr 