Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki pitched five innings on Saturday, April 25, against the Chicago Cubs in what continued to be an eventful outing.
Sasaki entered the sixth inning, but he failed to record an out, getting pulled after adding two baserunners to the equation.
Saturday was Roki Sasaki’s bobblehead night, during which fans got thousands of miniature Sasaki figurines.
In fact, Miguel Rojas had one in the dugout as he supported his Japanese teammate, to whom Rojas gifted his number.
Sasaki got into the sixth inning for the first time all season long, and his final statistical line was seven hits, one walk, five strikeouts, and three home runs, along with four total earned runs.
The progress from Roki Sasaki
Sasaki only walked one hitter, a big improvement for the young pitcher who has suffered from command issues, especially with his fastball and splitter.
Additionally, his splitter looked really good, fooling hitters and increasing the velocity on his signature pitch. He averaged 89.5 mph on the splitter on Saturday, up 4.5 mph from his season average. Four of his five strikeouts came on that pitch.
When he can throw around the margins for possible strikes and challenge pitches, the splitter is one of the best pitches on the whole Dodgers’ roster.
He threw 99 pitches and got 34 called strikes and whiffs, 15 of which were whiffs. His ratio was notably better than other starts, considering the volume.
Inconsistencies with Sasaki remain
While his fastball was more in the zone, the pitch’s problems became all the more apparent. It has poor shape, being quite straight and flat, and lacks good movement for whiffs when thrown in the zone.
There were three hits given up on the fastball, and five hard-hit balls. His splitter, on the other hand, led to four hits and three hard-hit balls.
Sasaki gave up three home runs during the game, two of which came on the fastball.
Until the shape of his heater improves and he gets more movement on it, he will have a hard time getting whiffs and inducing weak contact.
However, if his splitter is working well and his slider-cutter hybrid works better and more often than it did on Saturday, Sasaki will be able to limit his low moments.