LOS ANGELES — Roki Sasaki‘s career with the Dodgers is not off to a sensational start.
For a young pitcher who has been a dominant force at every other step in his meteoric baseball career, that’s both a surprise and a challenge.
Sasaki’s Dodger Stadium debut ended in the second inning Saturday night after the touted right-hander again struggled with his control against the Detroit Tigers. He issued four walks and got only five outs while throwing 61 pitches to 12 batters before manager Dave Roberts pulled him.
Sasaki made his major league debut last week against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, where he walked five in three innings while throwing only 25 strikes among 56 pitches. Back in Los Angeles, he allowed two runs and three singles while throwing 32 strikes and repeatedly falling behind the Tigers early in counts.
Sasaki didn’t blame nervousness for his wildness, although his manager and catcher said it had to be a factor.
“I felt like I was able to get into the game pretty well, without any nerves,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I just didn’t feel like I had the stuff today.”
It’s far too early for the Dodgers to worry seriously about Sasaki, but the 23-year-old prospect touted as Japan’s most impressive young pitcher in several years has not yet found his groove with Los Angeles.
Aside from control issues for a pitcher who consistently hit the strike zone throughout his tenure with the Chiba Lotte Marines, Sasaki isn’t getting consistency from his splitter, which can be unhittable at its best.
“We have full faith in him,” catcher Will Smith said. “He’s a super-talented pitcher. He knows what he’s doing. He’s pitched on the biggest stages and stuff like that. So back to the drawing board. Have a good bullpen this week, and I expect him to come back out in five, six days and be dominant.”
A crowd of 51,788 roared for Sasaki before his first pitch at Chavez Ravine, but he struggled to settle in from the start of his 41-pitch first inning. Detroit had five baserunners and scored twice. Manuel Margot got credit for an RBI single on a 30-foot squib, and Trey Sweeney drew a 10-pitch walk with the bases loaded.
“Dodger Stadium is intimidating,” Smith said. “There’s four decks here. It’s loud. It’s fun. It takes a lot to be able to perform here. Again, we have full confidence in Roki. He’ll settle in. He’ll start pitching better. He’ll start dominating soon. It’ll be really good for us.”
Sasaki issued two more walks in the second, and Roberts decided to end this debut before it got ugly.
“All he’s known is success, and so I think that he’s certainly upset, disappointed,” Roberts said. “But you’ve got to be a pro and get back to work, and it’s not the first time that the starting pitcher has had two bad outings. This is all a learning curve.”
Not everything was poor against the Tigers for Sasaki, who blew a 97-mph fastball past Riley Greene for one of his two strikeouts. Zach McKinstry‘s leadoff single was the Tigers’ only hard-hit ball.
But it’s clearly not what Sasaki had in mind when he decided to leap stateside with the defending World Series champion Dodgers, who have said from the start that Sasaki’s development is far from finished.
“I don’t expect myself to be able to fix everything in a short period of time,” Sasaki said. “With that being said, though, I am going to be pitching every week, so I do expect as a major league pitcher to be able to put up quality outings. But it’s something I can expect myself to work on throughout.”
Jack Dreyer replaced Sasaki and got out of the second-inning jam, striking out Kerry Carpenter on four pitches. Los Angeles’ formidable lineup and bullpen easily covered for Sasaki’s struggles, powering to a 7-3 win and keeping the Dodgers (5-0) perfect to start the season.
Sasaki’s next start is next weekend at Philadelphia. He will have time to work on his issues in the upcoming weeks, because the Dodgers have enough days off in April to keep Sasaki on a comfortable rest schedule.
Although the club has no firm timetable for Shohei Ohtani to join the rotation, the National League MVP threw a bullpen Saturday as he ramps up toward a possible return to the mound in May. When Ohtani returns, the Dodgers likely will go to a six-man rotation.
