Sasaki did not factor into the decision in Saturday's 4-3 loss to the Rangers. He allowed two runs on two hits and three walks while striking out four across six innings.
Sasaki has shown gradual improvement over his five starts this season, and Saturday's outing was arguably his best yet. His only blemish came in the third inning, when he yielded a two-run homer to Kyle Higashioka, but Sasaki was able to make it through six frames on 78 pitches (49 strikes) while generating 16 first-pitch strikes to the 22 batters he faced. Over his last three starts, Sasaki has registered a 2.40 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 11:7 K:BB across 15 innings. He'll look to earn his first win of his major-league career in his next start, which is tentatively lined up for next weekend at home against the Pirates.
... See More... See Less
Dodgers' Roki Sasaki: Shows improvement again Saturday
Rotowire
Sasaki (0-1) took the loss against the Cubs on Saturday, allowing one run on four hits and two walks while striking out three batters over five innings.
Sasaki continues to be a work in progress, and his stat line would have looked a lot different had center fielder Andy Pages not brought back what looked to be a grand slam off the bat of Michael Busch in the third inning. Still, Saturday was another step forward for the young hurler, as he completed five frames for the first time in his big-league career. Sasaki also showed much better control than he did earlier in the campaign, as he threw 50 of his 81 pitches for strikes. The right-hander's 12:13 K:BB through 13.2 frames remains ugly, but Sasaki has at least been better with a 7:4 K:BB across his past two starts. Despite his inconsistencies so far, Sasaki has managed a 3.29 ERA, and Los Angeles appears comfortable letting him work through his growing pains with the big club rather than in the minors.
Dodgers' Roki Sasaki: Strikes out four in no-decision
Rotowire
Sasaki did not factor into the decision in Saturday's 3-1 win against the Phillies, allowing one run on three hits and two walks with four strikeouts over four innings.
Sasaki worked into the fifth inning and was lifted at 68 pitches after allowing the first two batters of the frame to reach base. While the rookie's current workload continues to limit his short-term upside, he threw 41 strikes and has lowered his walk total in consecutive outings. The 23-year-old will carry a 4.15 ERA, 2.08 WHIP and 9:11 K:BB across 8.2 innings into a home matchup with the Cubs next weekend.
Dodgers' Roki Sasaki: Struggles with control again
Rotowire
Sasaki completed 1.2 innings against Detroit in a no-decision Saturday, allowing two runs on three hits and four walks while striking out two batters.
As he did in his first big-league start, Sasaki battled his control while running up his pitch count. The right-hander needed 61 pitches to retire five batters Saturday and threw just 32 of those offerings for strikes. He's now issued nine free passes over just 4.2 frames in his first two major-league starts, though he's gotten away with yielding a relatively modest three runs over that span. Sasaki averaged just 2.0 walks per nine innings during his four seasons in Japan, so there's reason to believe that his early control issues will be corrected in time. However, until he is able to throw strikes more consistently -- especially with his offspeed offerings -- Sasaki figures to struggle to go deep into games.
Sasaki didn't factor in the decision Wednesday against the Cubs in Tokyo after giving up one run on one hit and five walks over three innings. He struck out three.
The 23-year-old appeared to be battling some nerves as he threw just 25 of his 56 pitches for strikes, but he buckled down after issuing a bases-loaded walk during the third inning with two straight strikeouts to end the frame. The control issues aside, it was a good debut for Sasaki, who was able to limit the damage to a single run despite the significant traffic. The right-hander will now have some time before the Dodgers start their domestic schedule against the Tigers next Thursday. Sasaki will likely continue to have some pitch restrictions as he builds up his workload over his next few starts.
This page provides an overview of our use of cookies and similar technologies (from here we will refer to all those as “Cookies”) and how to manage them. For more information please visit our Privacy Policy.
When you visit our properties and use our products and services (“Services”), we use Cookies to analyse and measure our performance, customize content and serve personalized advertisements. We may place our own Cookies (First-party Cookies) or allow our service providers to place Cookies (Third-party Cookies) on your device and collect information such as your device ID, browser type and IP address so they can help us better understand your interaction with our Services. Advertisers and other advertising technology partners may also use their own third-party Cookies to collect information about your visits, deliver advertisements tailored to your interests, keep track of the number of views of a specific advertisement, analyses the effectiveness of advertisements, or provide auditing, research and reporting for advertisers. Such third parties may also match you to an existing interest category (e.g. automobiles) that they’ve developed and provide you with more relevant advertising over time and across different websites.
When you click on save settings below, your preferences will be saved. You can change your settings at any time by using the consent settings module. Note that saving settings is linked to the particular browser and/or device you use to visit our Services. Saving your settings within one particular Service will not affect your choices on other Paramount Services, or if you visit this Service with another device or from a different browser. In addition, it won’t affect any of your activities on third-party services. You have other choices to manage cookies and other tracking technologies on the internet such as using industry choice programs or managing your preferences within your browsers or devices. For more Information refer to our Privacy Policy.
Essential
Always Active
These cookies are essential for the proper functioning of our Services. Essential cookies cannot be switched off in our systems. You can set your device to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the Service will not work.
Analytic & Performance
Always Active
These Cookies allow us to collect information about how visitors use our properties. Some examples include counting visits and traffic sources, so we can measure and improve the performance of our services. If you do not allow these Cookies we will not know when users have visited our properties and will not be able to monitor performance.
Functional
Always Active
These Cookies enable the services to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our services. If you do not allow these Cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
Marketing and Advertising
Always Active
These Cookies may be set by us or through our services by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertising on this and on other properties. If you do not allow these Cookies, you will still see ads, but you will experience less relevant advertising.
Social Media
Always Active
These Cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the services to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites, building up a profile of your interests to show you relevant content and advertisements on the relevant social networks. If you do not allow these Cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
![[object Object] Logo](https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/2020/04/22/e9ceb731-8b3f-4c60-98fe-090ab66a2997/screen-shot-2020-04-22-at-11-04-56-am.png)
