On Thursday night, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki showed promise that he can become the much-hyped player who signed with the Dodgers last season.
Sasaki go the win on the mound, throwing five excellent scoreless innings with seven strikeouts, two hits allowed and one walk before cramps derailed his sixth inning.
Still, it’s marked progress for Sasaki, who’s struggled at times in his first two seasons with the Dodgers.
Interestingly enough, though, Sasaki’s up-and-down tenure so far marks pretty reliably with the early career of one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game: legendary Dodger Clayton Kershaw.
Dodgers Nation group member Lawrence August pointed it out in the Official Dodgers Nation Facebook group, highlighting not only the statistical similarities but a major change that could be a reason to hope Sasaki has a bright future ahead of him.
How similar are Roki Sasaki’s and Clayton Kershaw’s early careers?
Sasaki is now through 29 games in his career, and if you look at Kershaw’s stats at that point, the resemblance may surprise you:
| Sasaki | Kershaw | |
| Innings pitched | 135.1 | 145.2 |
| Earned runs | 69 | 73 |
| ERA | 4.46 | 4.51 |
| Hits | 120 | 140 |
| WHIP | 1.337 | 1.460 |
| Strikeouts | 129 | 139 |
So what changed for Kershaw? Fortunately, it’s exactly the change Sasaki is making.
A turning point for Kershaw and, maybe, for Sasaki too
Appearing on the “Get It Done League” show on Thursday, Kershaw revealed that his career took off after a conversation with then-manager Joe Torre and then-hitting coach Don Mattingly.
“Honestly, I really never figured it out my first year. Going into 2009, my second year, my first month and a half was really bad again,” Kershaw explained. “I’ll never forget this conversation; it basically saved my career to this point.”
Calling Torre — and Mattingly and Dave Roberts, for that matter — “great” about staying even-keeled with him despite his up-and-down performances, Kershaw revealed that Torre called him into his office alongside Mattingly.
“[Torre] was like, ‘Alright, Kersh, I want you to hear this. Donnie, how would you face Kersh if you were an opposing team?’ He’s like, ‘Well, he has two pitches, and he throws his curveball for a strike less than half the time, so we’re just going to hit the heater.’ Joe’s like, ‘You hear that? You’ve got to learn a third pitch if you can’t land that curveball in.'”
Kershaw said he started working on his slider “that day” and began using it in “the next start.”
“That’s kind of what got me on a roll from there,” he said. “But yeah, if I didn’t have that conversation, didn’t learn a third pitch like that, it could’ve been a very different ball game, for sure.”
Guess who else is adding a third pitch this season?
Yup, it’s Sasaki, who’s added a slider to his four-seam fastball and splitter.
Thursday night, he threw 20 sliders in his 90 pitches.
So is this the turning point for Sasaki? Only time will tell. But if he continues to follow Kershaw’s career path, the rest of MLB should watch out. The Dodgers might have another ace in their rotation.
