The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in a high-scoring, back-and-forth game with a 14-11 final score, so it was no surprise that both starting pitchers were ineffective.
For the Dodgers, it was Roki Sasaki who was on the mound for his eighth start of the season. However, it was also his first on five days of rest instead of the normal six he has been accustomed to.
The right-hander came out in the first inning and allowed two home runs, which gave the Diamondbacks a 3-1 lead. He also ended up throwing just 4+ innings while allowing five runs on five hits with no strikeouts and two walks.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts decided to pull Sasaki in the fifth inning after a leadoff walk, but the 23-year-old had only thrown 61 pitches in the game, a decision he discussed via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I just felt tonight he was laboring from the outset,” Roberts said. “You could tell by facing 20 hitters and not one strikeout. Guys were taking really good swings. He didn’t have (anything) tonight to put guys away.
“I just didn’t feel that he was particularly sharp tonight and commanding the fastball, the split, all that stuff.”
The primary issue for Sasaki continues to be his fastball. Once a pitch that sat in the range of 98-101 mph in Japan, Sasaki’s fastball average during his latest outing was just 94.9 mph.
That was even a decrease from his season average of 96.1 mph.
Sasaki threw the fastball 36 times and recorded 12 swings against it, but hitters made contact every time. He did not record a single whiff with his fastball, and that’s a continuing trend for him.
Sasaki’s fastball has the lowest whiff rate among qualified pitchers in MLB, and it’s causing the pitch to be hit hard. It’s hard to envision Sasaki having much success until that’s addressed, and it’s something he’s trying to find an answer to:
“Just really still in this process of finding out what the root cause (is), working with my coaches, talking to people about this,” Sasaki said through his interpreter when asked about his unimpressive fastball. “I’m not quite exactly sure and can’t really state exactly the single reason.”
There’s a few issues working against Sasaki as reason’s for the struggles. The obvious one is his lack of command over the pitch. When a pitch is not located properly, it’s going to cause issues, and even more so when he’s not able to keep it in the strike zone consistently.
But perhaps one of the bigger issues is the shape and pitch characteristics of his fastball. Sasaki has a flat fastball with little movement, so hitters don’t have to contend with much when they see it.
He was able to get away with that more in Japan when his velocity was sitting around 100 mph and he had more control over his pitches, but sitting around 95 mph with no movement and a lack of control is asking for trouble at the Major League level.
The Dodgers say they asked Sasaki purposely decrease his velocity to focus on his command, but something will have to change soon. He can’t be successful in the majors in his current state.
The addition of a new pitch, such as a cutter or sinker, would go a long way in helping Sasaki, but he needs to be able to consistently command his fastball and splitter each game.
The Dodgers have stressed since signing him that Sasaki is very much a work in progress, but they also need to make some adjustments sooner than continuing to wait.
Roki Sasaki wanted to pitch on shorter rest
With the Dodgers short on starting pitching and in the span of playing 10 games in 10 days, Sasaki brought up the idea of starting on shorter rest than he’s previously been on.
The Dodgers also did that with Yoshinobu Yamamoto the day prior, but they should be able to manage them better in the near future with Clayton Kershaw set to return on May 18 and Ben Casparius being stretched out more.
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