Rintaro Sasaki is Japan’s national record holder in high school home runs after dropping 140 bombs for his Hanamaki Higashi program, the same school that produced Shohei Ohtani.
The left-handed slugger made his US debut on Tuesday night for the Trenton Thunder, and he wasted absolutely no time in flexing his muscle for American fans.
His first hit in the contest was a moonshot blast that sailed deep over the right field wall. It’s something we should all get used to seeing over the next few years!
After hitting a national-record 140 high school homers in Japan, Rintaro Sasaki has his first stateside dinger!
The @TrentonThunder cleanup hitter drills a two-run shot in his @mlbdraftleague debut.
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/etpWW5CY5M pic.twitter.com/bsH8lEL01r
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 12, 2024
Teammates responded in fitting fashion, hilariously giving him the silent treatment as he returned to the dugout.
Rintaro Sasaki gets the silent treatment after hitting his 1st homer on US soil
— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) June 12, 2024
Though he was projected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the Nippon Professional Baseball Draft, he spurned the league to attend college in the States. The 230-pound phenom is currently enrolled at Stanford, where he’ll soon suit up for the Cardinal baseball team.
Ineligible to compete at the NCAA level last year, Rintaro Sasaki had to wait until the summer to make his US debut. He certainly didn’t disappoint!
On top of that monster two-run blast, he recorded an RBI single that saw the ball pop off his bat at nearly 106 MPH.
105.7 mph on this RBI single from Rintaro Sasaki!
The Japanese high school phenom (140 HRs) is up to three RBIs in his U.S. debut in the @mlbdraftleague after going deep earlier in the game.
Watch the rest of the action FREE: https://t.co/etpWW5CY5M pic.twitter.com/H02HjQHd1J
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 12, 2024
Sasaki will spend his summer in the MLB Draft League, with plans to play for Trenton through mid-July. The move to the US could help speed up his Major League eligibility.
Rather than having to wait the typical nine years to become an international free agent, the 19-year-old can now become draft eligible after his sophomore year at Stanford.
He’ll be a player to watch throughout the summer and into next spring with hopes of continuing his amateur success in Palo Alto.
The post Record Setting Japanese Slugger Blasts Moonshot HR In US Debut, Gets Silent Treatment In Dugout appeared first on BroBible.
Record Setting Japanese Slugger Blasts Moonshot HR In US Debut, Gets Silent Treatment In Dugout
Pinoy Human Rights
0 Comments