TOKYO — It lasted just three innings. It included a grand total of 56 pitches. It ended barely an hour after it first began.
But was it ever one heck of a show.
Making his Major League Baseball debut Wednesday night, in front of his home nation at a sold-out Tokyo Dome and under immense pressure that had been building ever since his mid-January signing, Roki Sasaki’s first Dodgers start ran the full gamut of emotions, and included the kind of twists and turns that will likely define his rookie MLB season.
There was jaw-dropping stuff — including four consecutive 100 mph fastballs to start the night, a flurry of signature splitters that seemed to break in unpredictable directions every time they were unleashed from his right middle and index fingers, and even a few swing-and-miss sliders that effectively complemented his other two primary pitches.
There was also wildly inconsistent command — leading him to walk five of the 14 batters he faced on the night, miss the strike zone on more than 55% of his total pitches, and spend much of his night working out of constant stress.
There were highlight reel moments — like when he blew Seiya Suzuki away for his first career strikeout, and stranded the bases loaded in the third on back-to-back punchouts of Michael Busch and Matt Shaw.
And then there were expected examples of growing pains — from Sasaki’s inability to slow the running game, to the bases-loaded free pass he issued to Kyle Tucker that resulted in his only run allowed.
Welcome to the Roki Sasaki experience, one that should make the 23-year-old right-hander one of the most interesting players to watch on this year’s Dodgers team, if not all of baseball.
On any given pitch, the Japanese phenom can dazzle with his talent, and dominate with his pure athletic ability. On any given night, he might make entire big-league lineups look foolish at the plate.
Yet, at any given moment, he can also lose his rhythm, pepper the ball anywhere but the strike zone, and create chaos for himself and his Dodgers team.
Roki Sasaki yells after striking out the Cubs’ Matt Shaw to end the third inning and escape a bases-loaded jam.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Buckle up. Because when Sasaki pitches, it will almost assuredly be must-see TV.
“When you get youth and talent, which is Roki, what that introduces is variance,” manager Dave Roberts said. “So there’s going to be some really high highs, and then some things that you just don’t know that are gonna happen, because of his inexperience.”
The good news for the Dodgers: Sasaki’s inexperience didn’t derail Wednesday’s debut, with the pitcher working out of just enough trouble to preserve a three-inning, one-run line in the Dodgers’ 6-3 Tokyo Series-sweeping win.
In the first inning, Sasaki was flawless. He lit up the radar gun with fastballs of 100, 100, 100 and then 101 mph to begin the night. He pumped 99-mph heat past Suzuki to record his first career K. He retired the side in order while a captivated Japanese crowd roared in applause.
From there, however, little came easy.
Sasaki lost fastball after fastball to his arm side in the second inning, issuing walks to Michael Busch and Dansby Swanson before getting a reprieve on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s line-out double play. He started spraying the ball again in the third, following Jon Berti’s one-out single — the only hit Sasaki allowed in his outing — with three straight walks to force in a run.
At that point, the Dodgers still had a 3-1 cushion, thanks to a two-run rally in the second-inning rally and solo home run from Tommy Edman in the third. They’d add more insurance later in the game on a two-run home run from Kiké Hernández in the fourth and, to the raucous delight of the Tokyo Dome crowd, a Shohei Ohtani solo blast in the fifth.
But in this moment, with Sasaki seemingly on the ropes, Roberts got his bullpen active while staring toward the mound with a contemplative gaze.
It felt like, with Sasaki’s pitch count climbing quickly, he was likely down to his final couple batters.
Then, in the most telling sequence of the night, he struck out both to extinguish the danger — spotting three outer-edge fastballs to sit Busch down looking, before dialing up a pair of sliders to Shaw that he helplessly swung through — and end his debut with a deep sigh of relief.