Roki Sasaki’s two Cactus League outings for the Los Angeles Dodgers thus far have left a lot to be desired, but he did show signs of improvement on Tuesday against the Cleveland Guardians.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has been vocal about how impressed he has been with Sasaki’s work behind the scenes in practice. However, that has yet to show up when facing opponents.
Sasaki attributed his hardships in recent years to bad mechanics, and he has been working hard to correct them in camp this year. But it has been a struggle to translate the work he’s put in at practice to the games, according to Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“The past few years, actually, my mechanics were really bad. It’s not something that I really want, so I’m now trying to make some adjustments,” he said.
“I was able to find something I could really trust. But I still need to work on [it] to reproduce in the game. I was able to find a better way to use my lower body, but I still have some issues in the upper body, so I’m gonna work on it and keep moving forward.”
After allowing two walks and two hits, including a home run, in the first inning against the Guardians, Sasaki bounced back in the second and third inning to throw 13 of his final 22 pitches for strikes.
Going forward, command of the fastball will need to continue being a point of emphasis. The results weren’t great overall, as Sasaki threw it for a strike less than 50% of the time.
However, the right-hander was much improved after the first inning, landing five of his seven fastballs for strikes while utilizing his new cutter-slider more.
Roki Sasaki expected to be part of Dodgers’ Opening Day rotation
Despite an uneven first two starts of the spring, Roberts said Sasaki is still expected to be part of the team’s starting rotation to begin the 2026 season.
With Blake Snell and Gavin Stone not expected to be ready for Opening Day, the final two or three spots will likely go to a combination of Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan and Justin Wrobleski.
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