Slowed-down footage of Kodai Senga throwing his trademark ghost fork pitches explains why they’re so hard to hit.
The New York Mets pitcher had quite the impressive outing against the Philadelphia Phillies this week, limiting them to just one hit over his seven frames while facing one hitter over the minimum.
The aforementioned ghost fork has been deadly for Sengai, who’s able to fool batters into thinking they’re facing a fastball before it just falls off the plate. The pitch is like a splitter that appears to call on gravity at just the right moment.
You could see some clips right below:
Senga took advantage of the Phillies on Tuesday by throwing more pitches into the strike zone. He started the day throwing 35 percent there and threw 42 of his 100 on the night. Many of them were fastballs that set the tone in the strike zone, so he was able to fool the opposition at will.
The Japanese pitcher got 11 of his 22 swings-and-misses, a season-high, on pitches below the strike zone. He threw 29 forkballs, with eight targeting the strike zone, and Philadelphia swung at them 18 times, 12 of which were misses. Half of them came with two strikes.
