PHOENIX — It all came as advertised.
The 99-mph heat. The late-diving, hard-biting splitter. The overwhelming, if still raw, stuff that many expect will make him a future ace … if not more.
In his first official Major League Baseball contest, in the Dodgers’ 4-2 win against the Cincinnati Reds in Cactus League play at Camelback Ranch, 23-year-old phenom Roki Sasaki displayed all the tools that made him such a coveted commodity coming over from Japan this offseason.
He pitched three scoreless innings. He recorded five strikeouts. And he flashed seemingly endless potential, in both the short and long-term.
“We were all kind of waiting to see how he manages his emotions under the lights, first big league game,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And I thought he was fantastic.”
In his three-inning outing, Sasaki gave up just two hits and allowed only four to reach base. Of his five strikeouts, three came on pitches that moved so much they froze Reds hitters for called third strikes. And over his 46 pitches, the 6-foot-4 right-hander looked perfectly at home on a big-league mound, lighting up the radar gun and mowing through opposing hitters before returning to the dugout for the final time with a confident smile on his face.
“It was a mixture of excitement and nervousness,” Sasaki said through an interpreter afterward. “But once I was on the mound, I felt like I was able to focus and able to pitch.”
Since signing Sasaki in January — in what was widely seen as one of the biggest coups of baseball’s offseason, given he was restricted to a minor-league contract with a modest $6.5 million signing bonus — the Dodgers have acknowledged that Sasaki is still a developing talent.
He made only 69 starts during his pro career in Japan. He arrived in Los Angeles with full comfort in only his two primary pitches, the heavy fastball and 80s splitter. Part of the reason he picked the Dodgers, in a free agency that included roughly 20 total suitors, was because he felt they could best help him refine his delivery, and add life to a heater that dipped to 96-97 mph during his final season in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league.
“I think on the spectrum of finished product, it’s not even close,” Roberts reiterated pregame, noting the team’s lofty future visions for his development. “That just more speaks to his upside, his projection.”
But for now, there is plenty club brass has to be excited about, too — so much so, the team is tentatively planning for Sasaki to make his regular season debut in the second game of the season, during its season-opening trip to Tokyo in two weeks.
“I still think his floor, being a really good major league starter with the talent, is obviously high,” Roberts said.
It seemed that way, at least, on Tuesday night.
Entering the game at the start of the fifth inning, after likely opening day starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up two runs over the first four innings in his third start of the spring, Sasaki pumped a 99.2-mph fastball that led to a routine grounder, making good on Roberts’ pregame observation that his “velocity is really where we wanted it to be.”
From there, Sasaki started showcasing the best pitch in his arsenal, snapping off splitter after splitter that Reds hitters seemed helpless to hit.
After Austin Wynns hit a one-out single and Stuart Fairchild was plunked while trying to bunt, Sasaki buckled TJ Friedl with a late-breaking splitter for his first strikeout of the spring. He did the same to Matt McLain to retire the side.
Elly De La Cruz led off the sixth with a double, going the other way on a 98-mph fastball that Sasaki almost snuck by him. The traffic, however, was no problem. Austin Hays struck out looking. Jake Fraley flied out on a splitter. And after a four-pitch walk to Christian Encarnacion-Strand — Sasaki’s command was his one weakness at times — he quickly dialed up an inning-ending strikeout of Noelvi Marte.
“Obviously, there were some misfires in there,” Roberts said. “But he composed himself really well.”
The seventh inning was Sasaki’s most impressive, as he punctuated his night by fanning Wynns and Carlos Jorge with two more splitters that never seemed in danger of encountering contact.
Of the eight splitters Reds batters swung at, only one didn’t result in a whiff.
“He throws it hard, it looks like a fastball,” Roberts said, “[and then] some break straight down, some go to the left, some go to the right. So it’s tough to square it up, because you just don’t know what it’s going to do.”
There were lessons for Sasaki to learn Tuesday, in what was his first live action against opposing big-league hitters (his only previous simulated game this spring came against Chicago White Sox prospects).
He mentioned how splitters too far out of the zone were easily taken for balls. He noted how the few fastballs he left in dangerous areas led to aggressive swings. He also used only three sliders, still working with the team to determine how best to add another secondary weapon.
On the flip side, though, he felt like he was able to execute the delivery changes he has worked on with Dodgers pitching coaches so far this spring. He liked the fact he jammed some hitters when he executed his location.
“I was able to really work on things I wanted to, and felt I had a good foundation,” Sasaki said, before later adding: “As long as I am able to throw quality pitches, I should be able to get these guys out.”
For one night, that represented mission accomplished for the Dodgers.
For all the ways left for him to grow, he looked plenty capable of immediate big-league success too.
“You can talk about the talent, but you still have to go out there and do it,” Roberts said. “I think that it was really good for all of us, and most importantly for him, to see what he can do when he’s right against major league hitting.”
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