Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts could not hold back from dousing starting pitcher Roki Sasaki in praise after his last three starts.
Sasaki pitched seven full innings, notching nine strikeouts with only three hits and two walks allowed.
Even more impressively, there were only four hard hits on the night charged to Sasaki and one run, which came on a good pitch that Luis Robert Jr. got a hold of.
He threw 94 pitches to complete all seven innings, and 63 of those pitches were for strikes.
On the night, Sasaki got 21 whiffs out of 50 swings, along with 13 called strikes. The righty had some extra movement on his fastball and additional drop on the splitter.
There were some changes that Sasaki made in his approach.
He threw his splitter 47% of the time on the night, 21% more than his season average, while he threw his fastball 11% less.
Even though his fastball was lively and 0.9 mph above average, Sasaki felt the need to rely on his splitter more, and it paid off.
Additionally, the slider is becoming a true third pitch that he can trust to mix it up. Naturally, fans and viewers were impressed, but likely none more than skipper Dave Roberts.
Dave Roberts reacts to Sasaki’s start
Roberts was elated, noting how his start against the Mets was better than his outing against the Yankees, which was at a hitter-friendly park.
Sasaki allowed one run in 5.2 innings vs. the Yankees, throwing the ball harder than in his start against the Mets, but Sasaki liked the length and command more than he showed at Citi Field.
“I thought his last start he was fantastic and tonight I think was even better. Tonight was even better,” Roberts said.
“Like we said before the start, just keep stacking good outings. He had a good run in May. Let’s keep building on this.”
“Tonight was just a good exhibition of pitching. The command was really good. Left that ball middle-in to (Luis) Robert for the homer. But outside of that, I thought innings four through seven, that split was really unhittable.”
For the Dodgers, Sasaki is peaking at the right time, and even though entering the postseason rotation is a long shot, he could be an x-factor out of the bullpen.
More importantly, for the future, Sasaki is looking like he is on an ace trajectory, and he could be one of the faces of the rotation down the line, especially important for a team with so many older players on the active roster.
