From Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman to manager Dave Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior, the prevailing theme with Roki Sasaki has been patience and giving him time to continue developing.
Sasaki has the potential to be one of the best pitchers in baseball, but unlike when Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed with the Dodgers, he’s not yet close to being a finished product.
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But even with that messaging from the Dodgers, external criticism had only mounted since Sasaki made his MLB debut in the Tokyo Series. He labored through three innings and followed that up by only managing to get five outs in his Dodger Stadium debut.
The 23-year-old put all of that behind him against the Philadelphia Phillies, which Sasaki said stemmed from a productive bullpen session during the week, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“My bullpen session two days ago, I felt like I had something. Continued to work on it, and it just felt right the whole time.”
Sasaki also admitted to enduring a challenging week after struggling in his first home start:
“I did go through the week feeling a little anxious. I was searching for something I could be confident about. I learned it’s really important to have confidence based on some kind of adjustment, some kind of skill.”
The first inning on Saturday initially appeared to be more of the same for Sasaki as he gave up back-to-back hits. However, he limited the Phillies to just one run in the inning and proceeded to settle into a good rhythm.
The Phillies didn’t have another baserunner until Bryce Harper’s leadoff walk in the fourth inning. Sasaki quickly retired the next three batters faced to keep the Dodgers ahead 2-1.
Sasaki leaned heavily on his fastball and splitter to get through four-plus innings. He collected four strikeouts and issued two walks in the longest start of his young career.
There was noted improvement across the board, which wasn’t needed for the organization but validated the Dodgers’ ongoing confidence in Sasaki.
Dodgers bullpen backs Roki Sasaki
Sasaki did exit after a leadoff walk and base hit to start the bottom of the fifth inning. Anthony Banda stranded the inherited runners, with some help on Teoscar Hernández turning a likely game-tying sacrifice fly into an inning-ending double play after catching a line drive in right field.
Ben Casparius followed with two perfect innings, and Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott finished out the 3-1 win.
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