Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announced Roki Sasaki is scheduled to make his Cactus League debut on Tuesday night against the Cincinnati Reds.
However, Sasaki is going to pitch out of the bullpen and piggyback Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Dodgers hope to stretch Yamamoto out to four innings and have Sasaki pitch at least three in relief.
“So talking to both guys, they feel very good about facing Major League hitters,” Roberts said. “We’ll set up an exact inning for Roki to get prepared, so he can kind of prepare for those three, four innings, something like that. But they’ll both pitch in an A game.
“They both have been talked to and asked about, and they both feel very good about it.”
Both pitchers are the likely starters for the Tokyo Series, with Yamamoto taking the ball on Opening Day and Sasaki expected to pitch in the finale against the Chicago Cubs.
Sasaki made his Spring Training debut early this week in a hybrid ‘B’ game against Chicago White Sox Minor Leaguers. He was scheduled to pitch two innings but completed three.
That wound up being a footnote as Sasaki’s Dodgers debut garnered national headlines because of the leadoff home run he surrendered to top White Sox prospect Kyle Teel.
“I thought Roki was good. Obviously, you just kind of don’t know what to expect, as far as seeing other hitters. But he threw three innings today, velocity looked good,” Roberts said that afternoon.
“He’s been a star since he was 16 years old. So certainly, he probably hasn’t got hit a lot, but I do think that some of these guys that I’ve seen that have been really good, elite pitchers, when they get hit in the mouth, they respond back. And so he doesn’t run from competition, and that’s part of his pedigree.
“So I think it’s more of just building him up, getting him acclimated to Major League hitters, and then let everything else take care of itself.”
Why is Roki Sasaki pitching out of bullpen?
With a condensed Spring Training because of beginning the season early with the Tokyo Series and also needing to manage a surplus of starting pitchers, the Dodgers are running into a scenario where schedules overlap.
Such is taking place with Yamamoto and Sasaki, hence the latter being bumped to appearing out of the bullpen. That also applied to Tony Gonsolin when he entered in relief against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday.
Another way to alleviate the logjam is having a starter pitch in a ‘B’ game, but the Dodgers have acknowledged a need to get Sasaki opportunities in the Cactus League in order to better prepare for his MLB debut.
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