By Jim Allen, KYODO NEWS - Sep 5, 2017 - 23:05 | Sports, All

SoftBank Hawks pitcher Dennis Sarfate rewrote the record book on Tuesday, when he set Nippon Professional Baseball's single-season saves record with his 47th.

Sarfate closed out the Hawks' 6-5 win over the Orix Buffaloes with two 11th-inning strikeouts and a fly out. He began the day tied with the Chunichi Dragons' Hitoki Iwase and the Hanshin Tigers' Kyuji Fujikawa, who reached 46 in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

"I feel great. I'm glad it's over with," Sarfate said after receiving a huge welcome from his teammates when he returned to the visitors' dugout at Kyocera Dome.

"I just think about the two guys that had that record, Iwase-san and Fujikawa-san, and what they must have been going through that whole year. It's been a struggle for me to keep my emotions in check."

The record came in a roller coaster ride after the Buffaloes scored three runs in the eighth to tie the game, depriving Sarfate of a chance to save it in the ninth in his first game since he tied the record on Saturday. Despite the emotion surrounding the record, Sarfate has been as fit and dominant as he has ever been in Japan this season.

"It hasn't been such a grind," he told the Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast last month after setting the career saves mark by a foreign pitcher. "As I get older, I feel like I get better, physically-wise, although I don't know how that's possible. This year I feel real strong."

Sarfate saved 35 games in his 2011 NPB debut season with the Hiroshima Carp, who signed him on the recommendation of scout Erik Schullstrom. After seeing Sarfate dominate in a sweltering Triple-A game over a year earlier, the Carp began a year-long pursuit of the reliever, who had pitched briefly for the Milwaukee Brewers and Houston Astros before 77 games with the Baltimore Orioles in 2008 and 2009.

"It was easy to fall in love with him," Schullstrom said on Saturday by telephone from his home in California. "He was hyper aggressive and as overpowering a pitcher as I'd ever seen. He wasn't sticking in the majors some said because of a lack of secondary pitches or a lack of control. In his first year, I thought he'd be awesome, but he was better than that by a lot."

Sarfate was hurt in his second season in Hiroshima and lost the closer role. At that time the Carp were still unwilling to pay market prices for their own free agents, and did not re-sign Sarfate, who moved to the Pacific League's Seibu Lions, primarily as their setup man.

Finishing the 2013 season as a free agent again, he had several offers but selected SoftBank, where he earned the closer role. Sarfate saved a career-high 37 in 2014, established PL records with 41 the following season and 43 last year.

He often credits former Hawks catcher Toru Hosokawa with assisting his transformation from basically just a fastball pitcher into someone who threw all he had at you.

Sarfate said Hosokawa challenged him to throw first-pitch forkballs, throw two of them in a row, throw his curve when behind in the count. But Schullstrom says much of that is simply the pitcher's humility.

"He's a smart guy, a humble guy, and he can credit the catchers. But he's the one that deserves the credit for what he's become," Schullstrom said. "The catcher can put down whatever fingers he likes, but if you can't make the pitches, they'd stop putting those fingers down. Because he's good enough and confident enough to throw strikes, they can call those pitches."

Looking back, Sarfate said almost the entire ride here has been a surprise.

"I came over here with no expectations, not knowing what it was going to be like," he said.

Although he saved 35 games in his debut season, he received a rude awakening, giving up three runs on eight hits over his first four games in NPB.

"I was thinking, 'Man, this is no joke.' These guys are for real," he said. "Now, I respect a lot of the players and they respect me and you can just see it's a full battle. Everyone knows I'm out there doing the best I can, and they're all trying to get me. And I see some of the swings they take off me, and it's just a cool experience to be here seven years."