Japanese major leaguer Kodai Senga (30) combined a 158km fastball and a 101km slow curve to block the club with the highest winning rate in the major leagues by 1 run. Local broadcasters were tongue-in-cheek at the huge speed difference between Senga’s two pitches.
Senga started the home game against the 2023 Major League Tampa Bay Rays held at Citi Field in Flushing, New York, USA on the 18th (Korean time) and won the team’s 8-7 victory with 6 innings, 3 hits, 3 walks, 12 strikeouts and 1 run. backed it up
Senga was having his debut season with 4 wins and 2 losses in 7 games and an earned run average of 4.14. On this day, he met Tampa Bay, the first place in the Eastern Division of the American League with a win rate of over 70%, and took away the timing of batters due to the difference in velocity between the fastball and the breaking ball. After one out in the 4th inning, Brandon Rowe and Isaac Paredis hit doubles in a row and dedicated the first run, but he was responsible for stable innings until the 6th inning and achieved the 3rd quality start of the season without difficulty. 104 pitches. The highest speed of the fast ball was 98.3 miles (158 km) and the slow curve was 63 miles (101 km), and the difference in speed between the two types reached 57 km. 먹튀검증
Senga showed off the aesthetics of slowness by meeting Luke Reilly, the second inning when the score was 0-0. After the first pitch strike, the curve ball bounced on the second pitch was measured at exactly 63.2 miles. Rayleigh, who was standing at the plate, was taken aback, and Senga smiled awkwardly. The result was a strikeout. He used a low-dropping slider on 2B-2S to induce a missed swing. He confused batters with his 97.1 mph four-seam fastball and 63.2 mph curveball.
Local broadcasters also couldn’t hide their embarrassment at Senga’s slow curve. ‘Sportsnet New York’, which relayed the game, said, “Senga threw the slowest ball in the major leagues this season. He expressed his surprise, saying, “The curve’s velocity was only 63 miles.” Japanese media ‘THE ANSWER’ also said, “Senga’s fastest speed on the day was 98.3 miles. With a speed difference of up to 57 km, he played with the powerful Tampa Bay batting line, which boasts the top batting average and the top scorer in the major league team.”
Last year, with the Softbank Hawks of the Nippon Professional Baseball, Senga showed a good pitching with an average ERA of 1.94 in 22 games, 11 wins and 6 losses, and ranked second in the Central League in average ERA, most wins, and third in strikeouts (156). Afterwards, he obtained qualification as an overseas FA, submitted an application to exercise his FA rights to the club at the end of October, and signed a contract with the Mets for 5 years and 75 million dollars (approximately 100.2 billion won) in December. Senga decided not to participate in the 2023 WBC (World Baseball Classic) in March, focusing on preparing for his debut season in the major leagues.