Roki Sasaki 'Upset' After Struggles for Dodgers, Says Dave Roberts

Throughout his baseball career, Roki Sasaki has only known success. Since Sasaki was in high school, he was poised to be one of the greatest Japanese pitchers.

The success seeped into Sasaki's jump to Major League Baseball as several teams sought after the golden boy of Nippon Professional Baseball.

He had never thrown a pitch in the big leagues, but clubs fought for the 23-year-old this offseason. As the story goes, the Los Angeles Dodgers emerged victorious in landing the Japanese fireballer and the defending champions entered the season with Sasaki in the starting rotation.

The right-hander got the Game 2 start in the Tokyo Series, giving Sasaki an unforgettable homecoming. The rookie lasted three innings, and while he showed flashes of brilliance, there was evidently a problem with his command.

Sasaki's shaky start at the Tokyo Dome was largely attributed to nerves, which makes sense given the pressure surrounding his legacy in stateside baseball.

On Saturday, Sasaki faced another high stakes situation as he made his Dodger Stadium debut. The defending champions had opened the season 4-0, a feat the Dodgers had not accomplished since 1981.

And in the series finale against the Detroit Tigers, it was up to Sasaki to set the Dodgers up for success. To his dismay, Sasaki was pulled from the game after recording just five outs across 1.2 innings.

The right-hander could not find the strike zone, his velocity was down, and he walked four. Sasaki was visibly disappointed when he walked to the dugout, baseball still in hand.

“He wants to perform,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “All he’s known is success. And so I think that he’s certainly upset, disappointed. But you got to be a pro and get back to work. It’s not the first time that a starting pitcher has had two bad outings. And so again, this is all the learning curve, and we still got a good ball club, and we’re going to need him.”

The Dodgers don't need Sasaki to be an instant star, but the recent struggles will either continue or come to a screeching halt in the coming weeks. What comes next is really up to Sasaki.

“He wants to impress,” Roberts said. “He wants to pitch well. He’s going up there competing. And right now it’s just not syncing up. So we’re going to keep working on it. But from the outset, I’ve always said we believe that this is a process.”

The Dodgers still believe in Sasaki, and so should fans. It's still quite early in the right-hander's career to make any final decisions on the pitcher he will become.

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