Roki Sasaki shows progress in six innings, but Dodgers fall to Rangers on walk-off
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ARLINGTON, Tex. — Roki Sasaki will have to keep waiting for his first Major League Baseball victory.
Despite his season-long six-inning, two-run start against the Texas Rangers on Saturday, the Dodgers couldn’t find a way to hold on in the ninth.
Instead, veteran reliever Kirby Yates blew a save in the Dodgers’ 4-3 walk-off loss, giving up a two-run home run to Adolis García on just the seventh pitch of his first save opportunity this season.
That’s how sudden the narrative change was at Globe Life Field; shifting the spotlight from the Dodgers’ 23-year-old phenom starter, to a bullpen that ran short on late-game options without either of their primary closers available.
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“Yeah, it happened pretty quick,” Yates said. “You just flush it and move on. Be better next time.”
The ending overshadowed a day of growth from Sasaki — who, despite suffering a noticeable drop in fastball velocity, took another positive step in his major league development.
Early on, Sasaki’s heater was as soft as 92 mph. Not until the fifth inning did it top 96 mph. Overall, it averaged just 94.7 mph, a stark drop from the 96.9-mph average he had over his first four MLB starts.
And yet he turned in his best effort as a big-leaguer anyway, using a heavy dose of splitters and sliders to hold the Rangers’ powerhouse lineup to just a two-run home run from Kyle Higashioka in the third inning.
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“I think that not to have the velocity today, but to still manage to get through six innings with that lineup, I just think that it was a good way for him to use his entire sequence, his mix,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Fastball velocity has been a point of emphasis for Sasaki ever since this winter, when he gave teams a “homework assignment” during his free-agency process to explain why they thought his once triple-digit heater had dipped to the 96- to 97-mph range during his last season in Japan.
In his MLB debut in Tokyo last month, Sasaki hit 100+ with each of his first four throws, and topped 99 mph eight total times. Since then, though, the right-hander’s four-seam speeds have been on a gradual decline, even before taking a sharp dip in Saturday’s first inning.
“I was surprised with the fastball velo in the first inning myself,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton on Saturday, noting he felt fine physically and that the dip had more to do with mechanical inconsistencies.
“I was able to really kind of dig in to what I needed to do and make some mechanical changes,” he said.
By the end of the day, Sasaki’s fastball velocity had indeed started to tick up (it was in the 95- to 96-mph range over his final few innings). But the more encouraging sign was that he located it consistently for strikes, setting up a heavy dose of splitters and sliders that kept the Rangers (13-8) and their star-studded lineup off-balance in a two-hit, three-walk, four-strikeout outing.
“Overall, I think I was pretty happy,” Sasaki said. “I felt like I had to mix in all of my pitches.”
The Dodgers’ offense, meanwhile, put Sasaki in line for his first career win, erasing the early 2-0 deficit with a three-run rally in the fourth that was keyed by Freddie Freeman’s two-run homer and (after a botched pickoff attempt from Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi moved Michael Conforto into scoring position) a go-ahead ground-rule double from Max Muncy.
Three middle relievers then provided a bridge to the ninth inning, with Jack Dreyer, Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips (who was making his season debut after being activated off the injured list pregame) combining for scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth.
In the ninth, however, the Dodgers were without their top two closing options. Tanner Scott was down after pitching three of the previous five days. Blake Treinen was unavailable after going on the injured list pregame with forearm tightness (his timeline to return wasn’t immediately clear, with the Dodgers awaiting results on an MRI).
The Dodgers tried to prepare for such circumstances this off-season. They made a late-winter splash for Yates — a veteran right-hander who recorded 33 saves for the Rangers last year, and had a 1.74 ERA with 20 strikeouts in his first 11 appearances this season — with days like Saturday specifically in mind.
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Yates, however, failed to record an out in the ninth. Josh Smith lined a leadoff double down the left-field line after barely missing the right-field foul pole on a potential game-tying homer two pitches before.
García then launched a no-doubt blast to left field, hammering an elevated 93-mph fastball to even this three-game series between the past two World Series champions ahead of a rubber match on Sunday afternoon.
“I think he just tried to sneak a heater by García,” Roberts said, “and he put a good swing on it.”
As the ball disappeared into the outfield seats, Sasaki’s chance at a first career victory vanished with it.
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