Dave Roberts is encouraged by Roki Sasaki’s debut despite the fact he took the loss in his first outing of the regular season.
The Los Angeles Dodgers manager assessed Sasaki’s debut, in which he took the loss after allowing one run and four hits in four-plus innings of LA’s 4-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians, its first defeat of the season.
Sasaki threw 78 pitches and left after allowing a fifth-inning single to Angel Martinez. Tanner Scott took over in relief and worked out of the jam.
Dave Roberts is Encouraged By Roki Sasaki’s Start
Sasaki had not offered much for Dodgers fans to feel good about in his four Cactus League outings against big-league clubs. The second-year righty walked 15 in just 8 2/3 innings and pitched to a 15.68 ERA after giving up 15 earned runs.
The starter admitted his confidence had been low entering the outing Monday, and Roberts understands why.
“When you donât have success, itâs hard to have real confidence,” Roberts said. “That was certainly an honest admission. But when you perform, you start to have true confidence.”
But Sasaki looked in control on the mound at Dodger Stadium on Monday. He was effective using all three pitches while striking out four and allowing just six baserunners.
“I was encouraged by Roki’s outing,” Roberts said. “I thought that he was more on line tonight. The misses weren’t bad misses. I thought he was in a good rhythm. He was attacking. He did a much better job of attacking tonight.”
Roberts spoke about Sasaki persevering despite the fact he allowed a run in the third inning. He allowed a leadoff double to Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges then Kwan’s one-out, RBI double and could have come unglued after surrendering a walk to white-hot Cleveland rookie Chase DeLauter.
But Sasaki struck out Cleveland star third baseman Jose Ramirez then got Kyle Manzardo to line out to right field to end the threat.
“He gave up a hard out to right field, but he still didn’t give up walks,” Roberts said. “In that situation, where the inning would have gotten away from him and has gotten away from him, he still went after [Manzardo], and got behind in the count and still went after him, but we got an out.”
The Dodgers Hope Roki Sasaki Can Build off This Outing
First-inning woes have plagued Sasaki throughout his big-league career as a starter and followed him to Arizona for spring training too.
Roberts admitted the starter was nervous, which could have affected Sasaki further, but it didn’t show since he pitched around a two-out single to Ramirez and threw up a zero.
“Thatâs growth,” Roberts said. “I know he was a little bit nervous going into this start about what to expect. ⦠But he responded well.”
Sasaki’s next outing will offer another test, since he’ll face the Toronto Blue Jays, who he helped defeat in the World Series. But Roberts’ belief in his pitcher grew Monday.
“Today was a really good step,” Roberts said. “Pitch count was fine. We got him into the [fifth] inning, so now the goal is to keep getting him deeper in games. I really think today was a good step in the right direction for Roki.”
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