Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts spoke about Roki Sasaki’s rough stretch and his future in the team’s rotation.
Sasaki, who had a stellar month of May and seemed to be truly living up to his hype as a generational international prospect, has flat-out been bad over his last few starts.
Since June 12 against the Chicago White Sox, Sasaki has looked bad. In that time, he has allowed 19 runs, seven home runs, walked 11 hitters, and gotten 15 strikeouts.
In fact, he has more hits allowed, 21, than walks in this four-game sample size. His ERA is 10.06, and to really show how ugly things have been, his flip is a whopping 8.82 over that span.
After allowing seven runs in three innings against the San Diego Padres on Thursday, manager Dave Roberts answered some tough questions about where Sasaki is at.
What Dave Roberts said about Roki Sasaki’s struggles
The Dodgers are going to conduct a deep analysis of Sasaki to figure out the cause of his recent downturn, especially his late start.
“They were on everything Roki threw. You could see it. Everything. And so we’re going to do a little dive. And I don’t know if he was tipping his pitches, but they were on everything. So we’re going to look at that,” Roberts said.
“But outside of that, Roki, for me, is just keep your confidence up. We had a great May. So let’s just get back to competing and making pitches.”
When asked whether Sasaki was being affected by facing the Padres twice recently, Roberts pointed more to other factors, outright stating that he was lacking.
“There is a little bit of adjustment that you need to make. But you look at some of the pitches, and they weren’t good pitches either. So you still got to make good pitches,” he added on Sasaki’s start.
What is Roki Sasaki’s future in the rotation?
The real damning part of Sasaki’s struggles came when Roberts asked if the Japanese pitcher would make his next start.
“He’s going to start next week. I just don’t think right now we have another alternative. And it’s a good lesson for him to keep going and try to fight through this,” the skipper said.
At this point, the biggest known change and weakness with Sasaki is his conviction for attacking the zone. He looks timid to throw challenge pitches, resulting in walks and poorly executed pitches that hang up for hitters to crush.
Sasaki has bounced back once from a rough Spring Training and the first handful of starts, but this looks to be a whole new level of challenging.
2 Responses
I think they have to Cut there losses? Or send him down to the Farm! To regain his Confidence Again! He’s not the same pitcher from last Year ( CAPTAIN OBVIIUS) IF NOT PUT HIM IN THE BULPIN IF THIS DOESN’T WORK? TRADE HIM
Totally agree with Glenn. Sasaki has shown that he is not ready for prime time.