A monster ace in Nippon Professional Baseball is on pace for the lowest ERA of the 21st century.
Orix ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 25, pitched a seven-inning no-hitter against the Seibu Lions at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka on April 24, allowing just three hits and striking out 10 to earn his 15th win of the season.
With the win, Yamamoto lowered his ERA to 1.26. According to Japanese baseball outlet Full Count, Yamamoto is on pace for the lowest ERA of the 21st century.
Yamamoto’s ERA improved from 1.67 to 1.26 after a six-game streak of zero earned runs against Rakuten on Aug. 1. On Aug. 16, Yamamoto allowed two earned runs against Rakuten to bring his ERA to 1.32, but he got it back to 1.26 with his performance today.
Japan’s lowest ERA in the 21st century is 1.27 for Rakuten ace Masahiro Tanaka. Tanaka’s dominant pitching in the era of the Tiger-Two-Sergeant led to monster performances in 2011, when he went 14-6 with 19 shutouts, and 2013, when he went 24-1 with an ERA of 1.27.
Only two pitchers in Nippon Professional Baseball have ever posted a lower ERA than Yamamoto. In 1956, Kazuhisa Inawa of Nishitetsu posted a 1.06. Hanshin’s Minoru Murayama followed with a 1.19 in 1959 and 1.20 in 1962 before posting a 0.98 in 1970.메이저사이트
Yamamoto has been a dominant pitcher this season. In 22 appearances, he has thrown 157 innings with 158 strikeouts and only 26 walks. He has a 2-1 record, a 90.9% QS rate, and a 0.89 WHIP.
For the first time in his career, he threw back-to-back no-hitters, last year and this year. He’s on the radar of Major League Baseball teams, so it’s possible he could make it to the majors after the season.
The KBO’s all-time lowest single-season ERA is 0.78, held by Tigers legend Sun Dong-yeol.