LOS ANGELES — The mystery that was Roki Sasaki started to reveal itself with a homework assignment. As major-league clubs submitted their best pitches to acquire the immensely gifted right-hander, Sasaki asked each to come up with a response to a simple question: How do you get his velocity back to 100 mph, as it was during his peak in Japan?
Sasaki’s transition to Major League Baseball is the most compelling storyline of the season’s first month, even if each start feels secondary for a team with an immediate track record indicating it can win without him. Four starts into his big-league career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Sasaki’s learning curve features a beefed-up syllabus.
Can he be in the strike zone enough to keep opposing hitters honest? And when he does, what can he get away with as he continues his transition amid extreme expectations?
This makes Saturday night an intriguing jump-off point. At times, Sasaki again looked the part of a pitcher walking the tightrope on a straight razor, yet he completed five innings for the first time in the big leagues with just one run in a laugher of a 16-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs. A game started by Sasaki was capped with Miguel Rojas on the mound, using Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s glove and mimicking Sasaki’s delivery. It wasn’t a good day for the Dodgers — the worst shutout home loss in franchise history, in fact.
It was nonetheless an intriguing one for Sasaki. One that keeps the arrow pointed upward.
“For me, that was the silver lining of the night, and probably the most important piece of the game was for him to get better,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Sasaki tweaked his delivery during a bullpen session more than a week ago — aligning his back leg and shoulder to better emphasize his extreme leg kick and straighten his direction to the plate — and found a way to throw fastballs consistently over the plate. That represented a change from the erratic version of Sasaki that seemingly had no idea where anything was going. So, that was a start.
The spray of fastballs early could have been from trying too hard to meet inordinate hype. Sasaki’s identity from the time he was a teen came in large part from his extreme velocity. He wanted it back, trying for that extra effort to get back to triple digits. In his first big-league start, back in his home country, he touched 101 mph. It went everywhere but the strike zone.
“I think there’s a lot of expectation, a lot of internal pressure, and I think he wants to rear back,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said. “He knows that he’s known for his velocity, and I think he’s trying to get it. I think we’ve been encouraging him, as well as his teammates, that it’s about getting outs. This is a team game. You’re not going to do it by yourself. You don’t have to win a game by yourself.”
Sasaki’s fastball averaged 96.4 mph Saturday. It didn’t top 98.3 mph. Underlying metrics aren’t bullish on the shape or characteristics of Sasaki’s fastball. Without its velocity, it doesn’t have strong carry through the zone. But if Sasaki can throw it for strikes, at least he can see for himself what it can do.
The Cubs were ready for it. As the first team in baseball this year to get multiple looks at Sasaki, they looked for fastballs in the strike zone. They dared him to throw anything else over the plate. Even a splitter as unique as Sasaki’s can’t be effective if no one swings at it and it isn’t a strike. The first time through the order, the Cubs swung just one time at a non-fastball. It was a smart plan that will be simple to replicate.
“It seemed like their plan was just to hunt the heater,” catcher Austin Barnes said.
Most of those fastballs were hit hard but found gloves. Michael Busch drove an elevated fastball into the seats, the first extra-base hit Sasaki had surrendered all season.
After a single and two walks loaded the bases, Busch nearly repeated the feat. He drove a fastball in a near-identical location out to center field. Andy Pages’ glove was nearly over the wall in center field when he caught it, crashing into the wall after preventing what could have been a grand slam.
“Really saved the day,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton.
It took until the fourth inning for Sasaki to throw a splitter that could be considered in the strike zone. He immediately followed it with another splitter to Dansby Swanson, one that dove toward Swanson’s ankles. He flailed at it.
Pitch right before this splitter was the first splitter Roki Sasaki had landed in-zone all night. Doing so more frequently is going to be a big step in his progression, as Mark Prior said pregame. Sets everything else up. pic.twitter.com/K4YilBsm26
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) April 13, 2025
Sasaki threw six more splitters in the strike zone in the later innings, seemingly hinting at an idea the Dodgers are hoping to hammer in coming starts.
That will induce some ugly swings. The splitter seems to be every bit of one of the most unhittable pitches in baseball. He’s just hardly been able to leverage it.
“If he throws it for a strike, at some point you’ve got to swing at it,” Prior said.
The Cubs swung at eight splitters, whiffing on half of them.
“It does put me in a little tough spot, considering that I don’t throw a variety of pitches,” Sasaki said. He turned more to his slider to get something else over the plate.
“When my fastball command is good,” Sasaki said, “(then) guys, I feel like, will swing a little bit more on my split.”
It was good enough for Sasaki to exit what was still a 1-0 game. The Dodgers could do little to solve hard-throwing right-hander Ben Brown, who had allowed 11 runs in 11 2/3 innings this season entering the night. The Dodgers’ lower-leverage relievers got battered. The Cubs scored 14 of their 16 runs over the final three innings.
“It was a close one,” Barnes said. “Then it got away. It’s not fun being back there while they’re just teeing off of a position player.”
For Saturday, at least, Sasaki gave the Dodgers something to cling to amid a miserable night. The first few weeks in the major leagues will give Sasaki plenty of time to course-correct.
(Photo: Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images)