Roki Sasaki producing the best start of his career against the Los Angeles Angels, the worst team in baseball this season, was met with both recognition but also some lingering doubt.
Criticism returned on Saturday as Sasaki struggled in the first inning, resulting in the Los Angeles Dodgers falling into a 3-0 deficit. He gave up back-to-back doubles and committed a run-scoring throwing error before recording an out. Matters could have been worse for the right-hander if not for Andy Pages throwing out Gary Sanchez on his attempt to go from first to third base on a two-out single.
But rather than unravel, Sasaki responded to get through five innings without allowing another run. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described that as yet another example of continued improvements from the 24-year-old, per Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group.
“It’s a sign of a young player starting to really grow up and understand his responsibility to the team,” Roberts said. “You need to take down innings and outs as a starting pitcher. And it’s not always gonna be easy. That’s a learning moment that he could have folded. And I think that last year, it might have been tougher for him to get through that first inning. But he got through it and went four more scoreless. So (it is) continued growth for Roki. And I’m really impressed, because it seems like every outing, he is learning and getting better as a major-league pitcher.”
Sasaki’s 35-pitch first inning was briefly followed by more trouble as Jackson Chourio doubled and Brice Turang walked with two outs in the second. Sasaki responded by retiring the next 10 batters in a row and finished his outing by getting through four scoreless innings on just 52 pitches.
The ultimate result of the outing was to similar of that from Justin Wrobleski the night prior. Wrobleski has been more consistent so far this season, though he and Sasaki are being heavily relied upon as the Dodgers starting rotation remains without Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow.
Roki Sasaki trending in positive direction
Sasaki on the season is 3-3 with a 4.93 ERA, 5.21 FIP and 1.42 WHIP across nine starts. However, he’s allowed three earned runs or fewer in all four starts during May. Moreover, Sasaki has given up three or fewer earned runs in seven overall starts this season.
This month alone he’s pitched to a 3.52 ERA, been in the strike zone more consistently and effectively been at the caliber of what’s expected from a backend starter.
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