Roki Sasaki shows glimpses of his future star potential in Dodgers' win

Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers in the first inning of a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday. (Laurence Kesterson / Associated Press)

The Dodgers, as manager Dave Roberts had said repeatedly when asked about Roki Sasaki over the season’s first few weeks, knew what they signed up for.

Long before his arrival this winter, the Dodgers were already mesmerized with Sasaki’s stuff; from his upper-90s mph fastball to a forkball-grip splitter that their evaluators (like much the rest of the baseball industry) graded as an elite-level pitch.

But they also knew that Sasaki was not a finished product; the kind of developing talent who, with less raw talent, would almost certainly be in the minors polishing his craft.

As a result, the challenge for this season, at least, was how Sasaki could keep improving the finer details of his game while acclimating to an immediate transition from Japan to the big leagues.

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And after two shaky starts to begin his rookie season, Sasaki finally laid the foundation for future growth Saturday, holding the Philadelphia Phillies to just one run over four-plus innings in the Dodgers’ 3-1 win at Citizens Bank Park.

“That was the guy we were waiting to see,” third baseman Max Muncy said.

“Just a building block,” a satisfied Roberts added.

Indeed, it was a total reversal from Sasaki’s first two outings, when he totaled just 4 ⅔ innings while walking nine batters and giving up three runs.

For the first time, his shotgun fastball actually hit the right locations, instead of being wildly sprayed anywhere but the strike zone.

For the first time, he attacked over the plate, setting up his wicked splitter to be a putaway weapon as intended.

And, for the first time, Sasaki looked comfortable and confident on a big-league mound; a far cry from last week’s images of the pitcher sitting red-eyed and shell-shocked on the bench after getting pulled in the second inning.

“Before we went out there [today], he told me, ‘Come on, let’s go!’” catcher Austin Barnes said. “I liked that. It was good to see [him] just going out there and competing.”

Over his four-plus innings, Sasaki surrendered just three hits, all of them singles, and issued only two free passes in a significantly more efficient 68-pitch performance.

He threw first-pitch strikes to 13 of his 17 batters. He seemingly worked ahead in almost every one of his counts. And he gave Barnes the luxury of repeatedly calling splitters with the Phillies on the defensive, dialing up Sasaki’s signature, knuckling breaking pitch for all four of his strikeouts.

“I think that’s where he needs to be,” Barnes said. “Just painting with the fastball, getting ahead, putting pressure on those hitters and making them respect that splitty. Because it’s a crazy pitch.”

To do that, Sasaki focused on his fastball command in his between-starts bullpen, trying to clean up his mechanics by re-incorporating more of his lower half into his delivery.

“Last time around, I felt like I wanted to throw strikes but I couldn’t,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I really worked on my mechanics since that game, and really felt like I was able to do that today.”

Despite that, Sasaki acknowledged going “through the week feeling a little anxious.”

“You really have to pitch in games to find out if what you feel in bullpens and during practice actually comes to fruition,” Sasaki said.

Which, he added, made Saturday’s performance “very much a confidence booster.”

“He probably won’t let on how much he needed it,” Roberts echoed, “but to get a [successful] major league start, given how the first couple went … I think that was certainly a big positive.”

Sasaki’s only real trouble came in the first inning, when the Phillies led off with back-to-back singles from Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner, leading to a quick run.

After that, Sasaki retired the next nine in a row, 12 of 13 overall, and was only removed after the fifth inning began with a borderline walk call and bloop single to right.

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It was an intentionally early hook from Roberts, who not only had a rested bullpen to deploy (four Dodgers relievers combined for five scoreless innings) but was also wary of overtaxing Sasaki after the way he’d pitched up to that point.

“He kept his composure, his poise and just kept executing pitches,” Roberts said. “Just kind of leaving the outing wanting for more, I think that’s a good thing for him.”

The Dodgers’ bats, meanwhile, provided Sasaki with just enough support. Kiké Hernández flipped the early one-run deficit in the second inning, hitting a two-run, go-ahead blast off Phillies starter Aaron Nola for his third home run (which represent all three of his hits through the first 10 games).

Michael Conforto added insurance in the sixth with a solo home run, continuing his strong start to his debut Dodgers season (.308 batting average, 1.111 OPS, five RBIs).

The defense also chipped in, saving Sasaki from being charged an extra run after his departure in the fifth. With runners on the corners and one out, Teoscar Hernández negated a potential sacrifice fly after catching the ball in right field, delivering a strong throw to first, and doubling off baserunner Bryson Stott before JT Realmuto could cross the plate from third.

“That was a huge play,” Roberts said. “Ended the inning, minimized the damage and took away that momentum.”

It also closed the book on a banner day from Sasaki — one in which he delivered the kind of performance the Dodgers envisioned at this stage of his career, quieted any questions about whether he might need time in the minors to develop, and provided a potential blueprint for him to follow for the rest of the season.

“Everything is under a microscope right now because of all the hype,” Kiké Hernández said. “But if it was any other random name who struggled through their first two starts, nobody would be making a big deal out of it. So, I think the kid’s going to be more than all right. And he showed that today.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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