A combination of factors likely contributed to Roki Sasaki’s poor form recently, as the right-hander had allowed 12 runs over his last 12 2/3 innings heading into Wednesday’s start against the Colorado Rockies.
The Dodgers were concerned Sasaki was tipping pitches during the July 2 start against the San Diego Padres, in which he allowed three home runs through the first two innings and six earned runs overall. The outing brought his ERA up to 5.40 on the season.
After that game, the Dodgers did a deep dive into Sasaki, and ahead of Sasaki’s most recent start on Wednesday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the right-hander was signaling some things to the batters that they had to fix.
“You know what, there’s some things that we’ve dug into, and there’s actually a couple things,” Roberts said. “So we’re trying to clean that up. And the truth is there’s cameras everywhere, guys are looking for an advantage, so you’ve got to keep your closet clean, and so he’s worked on that.”
The Dodgers skipper said the 24-year-old’s mechanical changes could be partially responsible for the opposition getting a read on what pitch is coming. However, some tendencies also date back to Sasaki’s time in Japan.
“I think some of it, but I think some of it, even in Japan, he was doing some tendencies too, and that’s what guys look for – pitching patterns, tendencies with the delivery, the glove, whatever,” Roberts said. “And our guys get it, we all, everyone does it.”
With five days between Sasaki’s two most recent starts, the player and team collaborated to address the issues at hand.
“We’ve addressed it, and hopefully it’s cleaned up in the heat of the moment,” Roberts said.
Tipping pitches cannot be solely blamed for Sasaki’s recent struggles, as he was also executing poorly due to inconsistent mechanics. The second-year pitcher mentioned that his mechanics felt uniquely off-kilter against San Diego on June 26.
That led Sasaki to make poor pitches and not execute well. So even without the tipping, he likely still would have had a poor day.
Roberts believes it was a combination that fueled the Padres’ success against his pitcher. “I think both. Like I always say, it’s a combo of things. I mean, like most things. I think it’s both,” he said.
The results were improved on Wednesday night against the Rockies, as Sasaki overcame two home runs allowed early on to finish with his fourth quality start of the season.
The two home runs he allowed were the result of mistake pitches more than anything else, and Colorado managed just four hits against the right-hander overall.
“I’ve been working on a lot of things, like the tipping stuff, but also that I need to make quality pitches,” Sasaki said through his interpreter after Wednesday’s game. “So I really worked on those things.”
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