The Los Angeles Dodgers began their three-game series against the New York Yankees with a 2-1 win that was propelled in part by Roki Sasaki’s excellent start.
The right-hander allowed just one unearned run on five hits and collected five strikeouts over 5.2 innings of work.
After the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts compared Sasaki’s outing to Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s start against the Yankees in 2024 that proved to be a turning point in his season.
“I hope so,” Roberts said on SportsNet LA when asked if a similar outcome could play out for Sasaki. “On the road, to battle his emotions and go out there and put forth the effort that he did was fun to watch. Hopefully he continues to build on that and it keeps giving him confidence.”
Yamamoto fired seven scoreless innings against the Yankees on June 7, 2024, in what marked only the 13th start of his MLB career. He had largely struggled with inconsistency up until that point and was able to finish his rookie season on a high note.
Sasaki is in a similar position after getting off to a rough start this season. However, he has now turned in two consecutive encouraging outings after previously holding the Colorado Rockies to three runs over six innings on July 8.
That came after the Dodgers worked with Sasaki to address his pitch-tipping issue.
“You know what, there’s some things that we’ve dug into, and there’s actually a couple things,” Roberts said earlier this month. “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.”
Aside from a mechanical adjustment, Sasaki has also been outfitted with a larger glove that helps combat tipping pitches.
Roki Sasaki set Dodgers velocity record
Over his 5.2 innings against the Yankees, Sasaki threw 21 pitches at 100 mph or more, which broke Bobby Miller’s record of 20 by a Dodgers pitcher in the Statcast era (since 2008), according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.
Sasaki said he made some adjustments to his delivery that helped him increase his velocity.
“It’s just one game, so it’s hard to tell what’s exactly going on,” Sasaki said through his interpreter. “I kind of changed the way I use my lower body, so I think it helped to get my velo up.”
Sasaki also threw eight pitches of 101+ mph. “It didn’t actually feel like I had great intensity, but the velo was there,” he said. “I think it was a good thing.”
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