Rafu Wire Service and Staff Reports
Baltimore Orioles hurler Shintaro Fujinami threw his fastest recorded pitch Sunday while helping his side to a 2-0 win over the visiting New York Mets.
The Japanese right-hander’s fastball was clocked at 102.6 miles per hour as he struck out his second batter, DJ Stewart, during a perfect eighth inning at Camden Yards.
The pitch eclipsed a 101.4-mph Shohei Ohtani fastball known to be the fastest thrown by the two-way superstar in MLB.
Fujinami struck out two and finished the frame in just nine pitches, all thrown for strikes, to earn his fourth hold as the Orioles extended their winning streak to four games.
Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde singled out Fujinami for praise after the performance, which marked a turnaround from his most recent high-leverage outing last Wednesday
in Toronto, where he entered a tie game and departed with a three-run deficit.
“That was the best stuff we’ve seen from Fuji. Fantastic and dominating stuff,” Hyde said.
Ohtani threw a Japanese-record 102.5-mph pitch during a 2016 game for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Nippon Ham Fighters, with Lotte Marines ace Roki Sasaki equaling the mark this March.
In Minneapolis on Saturday, Minnesota Twins right-hander Kenta Maeda struck out seven over six innings of one-run, two-hit baseball to pick up his third win in a 12-1 clobbering of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Maeda (3-6) surrendered his only run on a solo shot from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in the second inning, but went on to retire his last 14 batters in an 87-pitch effort at Target Field.
Ryan Jeffers had two homers, a double and four RBIs for the Twins, while Michael A. Taylor and Max Kepler also went deep to give Maeda a 10-1 lead before he left the mound.
“I was trying to attack the zone after my teammates gave me lots of run support, and it turned out nicely,” said Maeda, who made his 12th start this year after missing the whole of last season following Tommy John surgery in September 2021.
“I was creative using a variety of pitches and managed to throw well to the edge with all of them. I’m learning by trial and error and things are gradually on the up, leading to good results.”
Masataka Yoshida went 2-for-4 and reached 1,000 hits in Japanese pro baseball and MLB combined as the Boston Red Sox lost 5-4 against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Ohtani had his nine-game hitting run snapped as he went 0-for-4 as the Angels fell 3-2 to the Seattle Mariners, losing their fifth straight.
On Friday, Yu Darvish allowed two runs in seven innings, but didn’t figure in the decision as his Padres lost to the Dodgers, 10-5.