Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki’s full breakout is finally happening, and his start against the Seattle Mariners is only further proof.
Sasaki has put together four straight stellar starts, dating back to his last one before the All-Star break against the Colorado Rockies.
However, things have leveled up over the last three starts. He went on the road to pitch at Yankee Stadium, and he allowed no runs over 5.2 innings.
Sasaki only had five strikeouts that game, but his encore against the Mets was even better, striking out nine through seven innings.
The Japanese starter built upon it again, putting up seven brilliant innings against Seattle.
How Sasaki dominated the Mariners
Sasaki used his splitter to a deadly effect. He threw 35 splitters, generating nine whiffs, two called strikes and four strikeouts.
Additionally, there was not a single hard hit on it. The hitters chased on 50% of the pitches as well, swinging out of the zone as the bottom dropped out.
His splitter is elite; that much has been established for Sasaki during his current run, but there is a new development — his fastball is moving more and getting better results.
He had only two hard-hit balls on his heater, while it was averaging 99.1 mph on the night.
Also, Sasaki had 10 called strikes and five whiffs on his fastball, showing how well he mixed it up and blew past hitters when needed.
His sixth inning was bad. Sasaki gave up a triple and then a double, walked a batter, hit a walk, a single, and another walk, before Dave Roberts pulled him.
Before then, Sasaki had allowed just two hits and no runs.
As he tires during an outing, there tends to be a drop-off around the sixth-inning mark in terms of movement, which is a hurdle that Sasaki will need to clear.
Roki Sasaki can be a three-peat X-Factor
The stuff was otherworldly tonight, and while he needs a lot of development to reach his potential, Sasaki will be invaluable for the Dodgers come playoff time this season.
He will, barring disaster, move into the bullpen as a long-relief, high-leverage arm, giving Dave Roberts insurance in case their “Big Four” rotation has a rough outing.
Additionally, he can tap into his experience as a high-leverage reliever and come in during the closing innings of the game.
His stuff plays in the postseason, and this current level of stuff can be a game-changer, no matter how good the pitching depth is.
