MLB playoffs: How Roki Sasaki became Dodgers' 100 mph reliever - ESPN
PHILADELPHIA — Halfway across the world, Roki Sasaki had a secret admirer. In 2021, his first season in Nippon Professional Baseball, the Chiba Lotte Marines' teenaged phenom regularly blew triple-digit fastballs by hitters and complemented them with a split-fingered fastball that behaved like a high-velocity knuckleball. Once a week, new videos of Sasaki's latest start would find their way onto social media, and when they did, Rob Hill would consume them with equal parts appreciation and awe.


