Roki Sasaki

Roki Sasaki (Japanese: 佐々木 朗希, Hepburn: Sasaki Rōki; born November 3, 2001), nicknamed "the Monster of the Reiwa Era" (令和の怪物, Reiwa no Kaibutsu), is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Chiba Lotte Marines. He made his NPB debut in 2021 for the Marines and signed with the Dodgers in 2025.

Sasaki set a new Japanese high school baseball record with a fastball recorded at 101 miles per hour (163 km/h). The Marines chose Sasaki in the first overall selection of the 2019 NPB draft. Taking care to avoid subjecting their rookie to premature physical stresses, the Marines held back until the 2021 season before allowing him to make his NPB debut. He threw a perfect game on April 10, 2022, in which he tied the NPB record for strikeouts in one game and set a new record for consecutive strikeouts.