"Look at the level of baseball!' 24-year-old left-hander, 12K no-hitter in his 9th career game in the first team, is this real? → No-hitter in March, which came out in 86 years

*This content was translated by AI.

A new monster left-hander has been born in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Nippon Ham Fighters' "third year" rookie left-hander Haruki Hosono (24) shocked the Japanese archipelago by achieving a great feat of no-hitter on his ninth career first-team appearance. In particular, it is said that it has been 86 years since the no-hitter came out in March.

Hosono started the home opener against the Chiba Lotte Marines at Escon Field in Hokkaido, Japan, on March 31, and pitched as many as 128 pitches in nine innings, leading his team to a 9-0 complete victory with 12 strikeouts and two walks without a hit.

Above all, it is the 103rd no-hitter in NPB history, and Hosono became the 91st player to experience no-hitter. It is said to be the first record in four years since Cody Ponce (32, Toronto Blue Jays) in the 2022 season for Nippon Ham and the first time ever to come out of Escon Field, which opened in 2023.

What makes this record even more surprising is the timing. According to Japanese media, it is the first time in 86 years that a no-hitter has been achieved in March since Tadashi Kameda in 1940. Considering that the pitchers' conditions were not fully improved at the beginning of the season, it is said that Hosono's ball power is already close to the "completion type."

In particular, Hosono is a rookie who played only six games (3-1) in the first team last season. The Japanese archipelago is stunned that the pitcher, who had only played in single digits (8 games) before the day, did not allow a single hit against Chiba Lotte. In other words, he achieved the feat of no-hitter in his ninth game in the first team.

However, Hosono also had a final crisis on this day. While cruising to two outs in the top of the ninth inning, first baseman Kiyomiya Gota made an error that put Yamaguchi's ball back. It was a situation where his concentration could be disrupted ahead of the milestone, but Hosono maintained his composure. Against the follow-up batter, Kyota Fujiwaka, he scored a 150-km fastball in two balls and two strikes to end the game on his own.

Amid Hosono's strong pitching, the Nippon Ham batters also responded. Kotaro Kiyomiya and Reyes combined for "back-to-back home runs" twice and scored nine points to lighten Hosono's shoulders.

Nippon Ham, which had been mired in three consecutive losses in the opening period, laid the foundation for its counterattack thanks to its all-time no-hitter in its home opener. The emergence of 24-year-old left-hander Hosono once again imprinted why Japanese baseball has the world's best pitching power.

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*This content was translated by AI.