The Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals on Sunday despite Roki Sasaki turning in one of the worst starts of his young career.
The 24-year-old was tabbed for six runs and five hits, including two home runs, in five innings of work. He recorded five strikeouts against three walks on 90 pitches (57 strikes).
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts knows Sasaki didn’t have his best stuff, but he was still pleased to see him get through five innings to save the bullpen for their next series against the Toronto Blue Jays, via Sonja Chen of MLB.com:
“I told him afterwards — I don’t care about the line score, I care about the pitches in totality,” Roberts told reporters. “And those ones that we want back, we’ll get those back. We’ll be mindful of those. But for him to give us that extra inning is going to help us win a couple games in Toronto.”
Sasaki completed two scoreless innings before things began to unravel in the third. He gave up a two-run homer to Luis García Jr. on a poorly located fastball up and in the middle of the zone.
Sasaki then allowed four more runs in the fourth, with James Wood’s three-run homer being the big blow of the inning. That was made possible after the right-hander allowed back-to-back singles with two outs. Though, one of those was a ground ball that ricocheted off the first base bag and carried over Freddie Freeman’s head.
Sasaki returned to the mound in the fifth inning and retired the side in order to end his outing on a good note. His ability to bounce back after the rough sequence is part of why the Dodgers remain so high on Sasaki as a starting pitcher.
Roberts previously expressed confidence that Sasaki should have a better 2026 season after struggling for most of his rookie campaign.
Roki Sasaki’s 2026 stats
Prior to his start against the Nationals, Sasaki held the Cleveland Guardians to one run over four-plus innings in his 2026 debut at Dodger Stadium last week. He owns an 0-1 record with a 7.00 ERA and 1.56 WHIP in nine innings across two starts.
Sasaki should next take the mound when the Dodgers return home for a three-game series with the Texas Rangers this weekend.
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