Weakest move in sports history? Roki Sasaki pulled after striking out the side in 8th as he goes for 2nd straight perfect game

Agree. He should have pitched the 9th even if his throwing arm had fallen off between innings and he had to pitch with his off hand.

It's a shame that his contract in Japan will keep him there until 2027. We won't seem him pitch in MLB for a long time.

Everything is negotiable.

The game was still scoreless when he left, and his team lost 0-1 in the 10th inning.

Even if he had retired the next three, he still wouldn't have got a perfect game.

You raise a good point. But he was the home team. So I would have hid him pitch the ninth and then if his team doens't score, you call it a day.

Pulling the in form starter was the right move. The Mgr probably had little confidence his hitters could get it done regardless of what Sasaki did the next inning or two. Despite the pitcher's recent performances, the team is struggling big-time (just below .500 W/L) and the gaffer might not fancy the sack just yet. Losing his ace after an arm tweak at 120 pitches could deflate morale and spell bad news all round.

The bigger story IMO: If Chiba Lotte becomes a one-way train of sorry, can Sasaki match Lefty's 1972 heroics?

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Steve Carlton's 1972 season was one of the best since the Deadball Era - Cooperstown Expert

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Steve Carlton earned the NL's pitching Triple Crown in 1972. He won 27 games and posted a 1.97 ERA with 310 strikeouts.

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If baseball is not a sport, nothing is.

If baseball is, then so are chess, darts, tiddlywinks, golf, sewing, sleeping, gardening, algebra, rap.

Weaker than pacing Paula Radcliffe?

You cannot make this assertion because there is no way of knowing how things would have played out.

Sure, sure. Everything is everything and everything is nothing. Word meaning is arbitrary and can be changed by anyone at anytime. Cool!

I'd put it on par with Holloway being a DNS in the hurdles due to the wind.

Baseball is just a game, not a sport. If you have umpires or referees judging everything you do, it is just a silly game.

A cowardly, selfish move on the part of the manager… a national disgrace.

Is that today’s arbitrary definition of sport? An activity without umpires or referees? Okay. So there are no sports. As I said in my first post.

Baseball was a sport I enjoyed but not anymore. Ity's run by robots and computer programs. I find it unwatchable.