Roki Sasaki's Los Angeles Dodgers tenure has gotten off to a bit of a rocky start, to say the least. The right-hander averaged fewer than three innings per start in his first three appearances and recorded more free passes (11) than strikeouts (9) in his 8.2 innings of work. The Dodgers were able to win each of his first three starts thanks to their absurdly loaded roster, but Sasaki, outside of a few flashes of brilliance, looked like a pitcher who simply didn't belong at the MLB level yet.
For the first time in Sasaki's brief career, the Dodgers took a loss in a game in which he took the ball on Saturday. It wasn't just a loss, it was a historically bad 16-0 loss for the Dodgers at the hands of the Chicago Cubs. In fact, it's the first time that the Dodgers lost a game by 16 runs while being shut out since 1965. That was just the organization's eighth season in Los Angeles, and it resulted in a World Series win.
Based on the magnitude of the loss and how Sasaki had looked to begin his MLB career, Dodgers fans who could not watch the game would be justified in assuming that Sasaki got beaten up for a second time in the month by a very potent Cubs lineup. That was not the case, however. Sasaki is far from the reason that the Dodgers got trounced the way they did, and that should give Dodgers fans some hope going forward.
Roki Sasaki deserves none of the blame for Dodgers historic loss
Sasaki might've taken the loss, but his final line proves he didn't quite deserve it. Sasaki threw the ball as well as he ever has in the majors.
Roki Sasaki completes five innings for the first time in his MLB career.
In an ideal world, the Dodgers would see Sasaki rack up some more strikeouts and maybe push beyond five innings, but we're only four starts into his MLB career. There are more encouraging things to take away from this start than discouraging.
Sasaki allowed one run in five innings against a Cubs team that leads the majors in runs scored. The bullpen proceeded to get blown up in the final four innings, but Sasaki obviously is not at fault for that.
Most notably, Sasaki issued a total of two walks in his five innings of work, tying him for a career-low in a start. Sasaki issued five walks in his MLB debut against this same Cubs team in Tokyo and issued another four free passes 10 days later. In his last two starts, however, Sasaki has set career-highs in innings while lowering his walks to just two batters per outing.
The point here is that Sasaki is commanding his pitches better than he had to start his Dodgers tenure. It might not be perfect yet, but with his stuff, he doesn't have to have perfect command to put up strong numbers, as was evidenced on Saturday. The Dodgers will gladly trade a loss, even one this ugly, for a better version than what they had initially gotten for Sasaki. Now, the team hopes that the 23-year-old maintains this momentum and continues to improve his command. With his stuff, better command might result in Sasaki being the pitcher everyone was afraid he'd be when he signed with Los Angeles.
