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Roki Sasaki’s best MLB start leads Dodgers to series sweep of Angels
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- Roki Sasaki’s best MLB start leads Dodgers to series sweep of Angels
Over the last several weeks, Roki Sasaki has been making minor improvements.
On Sunday at Angel Stadium, it finally led to impressively tangible results.
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki tossed a one-run gem and lasted seven innings against the host Angels on Sunday. William Liang-Imagn Images
In a 10-1 win over the Angels , Sasaki delivered a seven-inning, one-run gem that helped the Dodgers complete a decisive weekend sweep in this three-game Freeway Series, easily turning in the best start of his young MLB career.
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It was the first time as a major leaguer that the 24-year-old phenom pitched past the sixth inning. "I was able to listen to the English version of 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game' on the mound for the first time," he joked in Japanese afterward.
He also set an MLB career high by striking out eight batters and didn't issue a walk for his first time in a big-league start.
"It was just great to see him be efficient and continue to do what he's telling everyone that he needs to do better," manager Dave Roberts said postgame. "I think that he's understanding what is needed to get major-league hitters out, what's needed to go deeper in a game."
Granted, dominating the lowly Angels (16-31) these days is like beating your little brother in a driveway basketball game. Dunking on them — or shoving like Sasaki did Sunday — is no grand achievement against their slumping offense.
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The way Sasaki did it, however, offered the most encouraging signs yet of the slow progress he has been making.
He consistently got ahead in the count (69 of his 91 pitches were strikes). He limited hard contact (snapping a six-start streak of allowing a home run). And when he had the chance to put hitters away, his reworked pitch mix allowed him to do so with ease.
"My delivery is gradually getting better," Sasaki said. "I know that if I throw a certain way, the ball will more or less go to a certain place."
The Dodgers' Kyle Tucker slides into home plate to score on a sacrifice fly by Miguel Rojas during the second inning. AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh
It helped that Sasaki spent most of the day nursing a big lead, after the Dodgers (29-18) scored two runs in the top of the second and exploded for a five-run rally two innings later.
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But for a team battling a wave of pitching injuries and looking for length out of its starters to protect a bullpen that has taken on a bigger recent workload, the strides Sasaki took were nonetheless important.
"There weren't any bad walks [or] deep counts that didn't need to be deep … Just losing a ball and hitting a batter accidentally didn't happen [either]," Roberts said.
"I think he's got clarity on what he needs to do," the manager later added. "And you can see it in every throw."
What it means
For perhaps the first time since he arrived from Japan last year, Sasaki looked exactly the way a reliable big-league starter should.
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And given the star pitchers the Dodgers have on the injured list, not a moment too soon, either.
It wasn't long ago, remember, Sasaki's place in the Dodgers' rotation was starting to look tenuous . But with Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell going down in the last couple weeks, he should now have a runway to build off Sunday's success.
His most critical task moving forward will be replicating the efficiency he finally found against the Angels. He didn't have an inning that required 20 pitches. He was 19-for-24 on first-pitch strikes. And after allowing his lone run on a Yoán Moncada RBI single in the fourth, he faced the minimum number of batters over his final three frames.
"I want a little more strength behind my fastball," Sasaki said, still finding a flaw with his performance after averaging only 96.6 mph with his heater. "But I think it was good that I was able to hold their hitters today. My breaking balls were better than they were last time."
Sasaki struck out eight and walked no one Sunday in Anaheim. Getty Images
Who's hot
Much of Sasaki's recent turnaround — he at least pitched into the sixth inning in each of his previous three outings — has come as a result of two key factors.
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The first: He is locating his fastball in the zone consistently, throwing it over the plate more than 80% of the time Sunday.
The other: His new pitch mix has made him less predictable, with the addition of a new splitter , to go along with his trademark forkball and newly added slider, giving his game a different dynamic.
Against the Angels, it led to more swings-and-misses (18) than he had ever before generated as an MLB pitcher. He also got batters to chase out of the zone 40% of the time.
"He attacked the strike zone. He attacked it with all three pitches, too," catcher Dalton Rushing said. "And then from there, you can kind of play the chase card with him a little bit and get outside of hitters' comfort zone. And obviously with the stuff that he has, it's easy to miss barrels."
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Again, time will tell how much that was due to Sasaki himself, or the fact that he was facing such a miserable Angels lineup; which has averaged fewer than three runs per game during their current 5-21 free fall.
Then again, Sasaki became the first Dodgers pitcher other than Shohei Ohtani to go seven innings with two runs or fewer since Glasnow tossed eight scoreless April 23.
"Today," Rushing said, "was obviously a big step."
A fan holds up a sign for the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani before the game. AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh
Who's not
The Angels were betting on Grayson Rodriguez 's upside when they acquired him in a trade for outfielder Taylor Ward this offseason.
But in his injury-delayed team debut Sunday, he looked helpless against the Dodgers' resurgent offense.
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The turning point in his 3 ⅔-inning, seven-run start came with two on and two outs in the fourth, when he was slow to cover first base on a two-out grounder from Hyeseong Kim that allowed the inning to continue.
The four at-bats that followed: a two-run single from Ohtani (who went 3-for-5), a walk from Freddie Freeman (which loaded the bases again), a two-run single from Andy Pages (putting him back in the MLB lead for RBIs with 41 this season) and then, after Rodriguez was removed from the game, another RBI single from Kyle Tucker (who ultimately finished the day with three hits and three runs driven in).
Just like that, the Dodgers led 7-0.
The way Sasaki was pitching, it would be more than enough.
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"I think the games unfolded close to perfectly," Ohtani said, after the Dodgers outscored the Angels 31-3 in the series.
"To break out like that," Roberts added, "is good for the confidence of the offense."
Up next
The Dodgers renew their recently heated rivalry with the Padres on Monday in San Diego , opening the series with Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3-3, 3.60 ERA) on the mound and a one-game lead in the NL West standings (pending the outcome of the Padres' Sunday game against the Mariners ).
