Strikeout Pitch
Strikeout Pitch is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kyu Sumiyoshi. It began serialization on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ web service in September 2024, and has been compiled into four volumes as of December 2025.
Plot
Rumors spread about a mysterious man known as the "Baseball Club Slasher" who appears at night. Heita Kobori, a high school student and captain of Yokohama Soha High School's baseball team, dismisses the rumors, only to be approached by the Baseball Club Slasher one night. After being impressed by his pitching skills, Heita aims to recruit him to the school's baseball team, aiming to reach Koshien. He learns that the man is Fusetsu Kiriyama, a student at Soha High with great baseball skills, but is only able to pitch properly three times a day. Despite Fusetsu's condition, Heita recruits him to the baseball team as a reliever, with the team hoping to make it to Koshien with Fusetsu's help.Characters
;Fusetsu Kiriyama;Heita Kobori
;Yōji Hirose
;Minako Agawa
Publication
The series is written and illustrated by Kyu Sumiyoshi. It began serialization on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ web service on September 3, 2024. The first volume was released on January 4, 2025; four volumes have been released as of December 2025.The series' chapters are simultaneously published in English on Shueisha's Manga Plus app.
Reception
The series won the eleventh Next Manga Award in the Web Manga category in 2025. The series was ranked third in the 2026 edition of Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook's list of the best manga for male readers. The series has been nominated for the 19th Manga Taishō in 2026.Yūki Honda of the website Kai-You praised the first chapter's writing, comparing it favorably to Sumiyoshi's previous manga Hyperinflation and how the chapter showed baseball as a game of wits.