Baseball: Lotte’s Sasaki leads NPB All-Star vote for starting pitcher

Lotte Marines pitching sensation Roki Sasaki has placed first in the fan voting for the Pacific League’s starting pitcher for the July 19-20 Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star games, according to the interim results released Monday by NPB.

The 21-year-old right-hander, who has a 3-0 record with a 0.84 ERA in five starts so far this season, leads second-placed Orix Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto 15,256 to 9,810 votes. Sasaki threw a perfect game in April 2022 against the Buffaloes.

Game 1 will be played at Vantelin Dome Nagoya on July 19 and Game 2 at Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium the next day...