Nobody Expected This: How Sasaki Just Turned His Season Around in One Night
After one of the most brutal spring trainings you've ever seen, Roki Sasaki finally delivered on Monday night. Yeah, the Dodgers still took an L to Cleveland, 4-2, but everybody in the organization is walking away believing their top pitching prospect might actually have something cooking now.
Let's be real: Sasaki had zero confidence heading into his season debut. And who could blame him? Spring training was an absolute disaster.
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Out of 52 batters Sasaki faced in exhibition games, 26 reached base. Twenty-six! Among those, 15 came via walk. His mechanics were all over the place, his fastball command was nowhere to be found, and his splitter just wasn't working. The whole team was holding its breath.
His final tune-up before the regular season? Catastrophic. Three walks and a hit batter in the first inning. He came back out for the second (exhibition games allow that) and immediately hit another batter and walked another before finally getting it together.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was publicly pushing Sasaki to stop obsessing over mechanics and just attack hitters with the stuff he's got. The guy needed to trust his arsenal.
A Glimmer of Hope in His First Real Start
Monday night changed something. Through four innings against the Guardians, Sasaki gave up just one run. His fastball was hitting 99.5 mph. His cutter, a new pitch he's been working on, generated a couple of strikeouts. Yeah, his command still wasn't pristine, but it was miles better than anything we saw all spring. For his first major league start since last May, this was exactly what he needed.
"When you don't have success, it's hard to have real confidence," Roberts said afterward. "That was certainly an honest admission [by Sasaki]. But when you perform, you start to have true confidence. Hopefully he can build on this one."
The Dodgers know they're onto something here. Sasaki finally showed up when it mattered most.
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