Japanese pitcher Senga Kodai of the New York Mets has made use of a rare pitch that was recorded as the forkball. It is the first time in four years that the pitch has been seen in Major League Baseball.

Out of 88 pitches in his debut game against the Miami Marlins on Sunday, Senga hurled 26 balls that sank sharply. All of them were recognized as forkballs.

All the finishing pitches in the eight strikeouts he notched up in the game were forkballs.

The balls he throws are often called the "ghost fork" because they sharply drop as if vanishing from the batter's field of vision.

The last recorded forkball in the MLB was tossed by Matt Carasiti in 2019, who then played for the Seattle Mariners.

Two other Japanese MLB pitchers, Ohtani Shohei of the Los Angeles Angels and Fujinami Shintaro of the Oakland Athletics, also have similar pitches. But the MLB counts their sinking balls as splitters.

Regarding the difference between forkballs and splitters, the MLB says, "The two pitches are gripped in almost the same way, except a splitter is generally held with more ease and placed toward the top of the fingers."

It also says that splitters are thrown with the same minimal wrist action as a fastball, but the forkball can be one of the more taxing pitches to throw.

Nomo Hideo and Sasaki Kazuhiro -- past Japanese MLB pitching stars -- were known to overwhelm batters with their forkballs.

Fans will be watching this season to see whether Senga's ghost forkballs will continue to frighten batters.