How do you improve on perfection? Roki Sasaki is doing his best to find out.

In his first start since throwing the first perfect game in Nippon Professional Baseball since 1994, Sasaki, 20, almost did it again for the Chiba Lotte Marines, as he was pulled after eight perfect innings in a 1-0 loss to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on Sunday.

The right-hander amassed 14 strikeouts before he was pulled from a scoreless game after throwing 102 pitches.