Roki Sasaki earned his first win in Major League Baseball after seven starts with the Los Angeles Dodgers, getting the decision in Saturday’s 10-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Sasaki, 23, had to wait quite a while to earn that first win due to a three-hour rain delay at Atlanta’s Truist Park. However, the long delay — and knowing that MLB intended to play the game — apparently helped him relax before taking the mound.
“I got a lot of the routine that I wanted to finish out of the way, because I’ve heard that when the game will start it’s [going to] happen suddenly. I was ready for that,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton.
Sasaki didn’t pitch a clean first inning, allowing a single to Austin Riley and a walk to Matt Olson. Yet he escaped without giving up a run, thanks to striking out Marcell Ozuna and Sean Murphy.
Strikeouts have been an issue for Sasaki, who can reach 100 mph with his fastball. But he hasn’t done so regularly thus far with the Dodgers because of difficulties with control when he throws that hard. Of more concern is the lack of movement on that fastball, resulting in few swings and misses. Sasaki’s first two strikeouts on Saturday were on called third strikes.
“It’s not a shape that’s going to generate a lot of swing and miss,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said, via The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya. “On anybody. We know that. But he’s trying to effectively get outs as best he can.”
Sasaki finished with four strikeouts — getting Riley to swing and miss, while catching Ozuna looking again in the third inning — matching his best total that he’s reached four times this season. He threw a season-high 98 pitches, 56 of them for strikes.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he thought about pulling Sasaki after the fourth inning when he was at 85 pitches. He gave up three hits in the frame, including Ozzie Albies’ fifth homer of the season. But with a four-run lead, Roberts saw an opportunity for his rookie pitcher to get his first major league win. And Sasaki followed through with a 1-2-3 fifth inning.
“I don’t always make decisions on pitchers’ wins, but I thought in this situation, I wanted to give him every opportunity,” Roberts said after the game, via MLB.com.
Sasaki had that four-run lead, thanks in part to Shohei Ohtani’s eighth home run of the year in the third inning and a four-run fourth powered by RBI hits from Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández and Will Smith. Four relievers followed with four scoreless innings to get Sasaki that first win, though he’s still viewed as a work in progress.
“I’m not exactly satisfied with my fastball quality,” Sasaki added. “But mixing in my other pitches, as long as I command my other pitches well, then I feel like I can get major-league hitters out.”
The Dodgers have won seven games in a row, improving their record to 23-10 and helping them maintain a 1.5-game first-place lead in the National League West going into Sunday’s play.
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