Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki got up to 94 pitches Sunday and limited the Rangers to two runs. What a showing, right?
Well, there was a major caveat. That pitch count only got him through four innings.
“It’s not that many,” Sasaki said through Japanese interpreter Kensuke Okubo after the Dodgers’ 5-2 loss Sunday against the Rangers at Dodger Stadium. “So my goal is [to] go deeper in the game a little more.”
Sasaki’s inefficiency seemed to stem from the command issues that plagued him all spring. Manager Dave Roberts challenged him then to find a way to compete even when he didn’t have his best stuff.
In three starts, he’s done that for the most part, though he’s had several innings that have teetered on the edge of completely spiraling.
Especially with the Dodgers committed to a six-man rotation, which by definition limits the number of arms in the bullpen, that’s not going to be enough long term. In order to avoid regularly taxing the bullpen Sasaki is going to need to show that he can be more efficient.
“With the stuff that he had today, the six strikeouts and the swing-and-miss and all that stuff, that sets up for going deeper in the game,” Roberts said. “So that’s something that I talked to him about, and challenging him to, when you take the baseball, we’re trying to go five innings or more. So I think that’s the next progression for him, to be consistently able to do that.
“But I do feel the growth part of it is to hang in there and make pitches when he needs to.”
Even Sasaki’s line displayed that push and pull of good stuff but inconsistent command. He recorded six strikeouts, the most he’s had in a game in parts of two seasons in MLB. He also walked five, tying his major-league career high.
“Honestly, some of the misses were just off, certainly with the fastball,” Roberts said. “So I think that maybe trying to be a little bit too fine. … Where before, there were some bad misses and maybe a little too (much) running from the strike zone. Where I don’t see that now.”
After giving up a leadoff single to Brandon Nimmo and walking Evan Carter to begin the game, Sasaki struck out the next three batters he faced.
He put away Corey Seager and Jake Burger with fastballs, getting away with one down the middle to Seager and getting Burger to chase up. And then he showcased the splitter as strike three to Joc Pederson.
“I think I was able to throw it on the plate, and also had a good depth,” Sasaki said.
Sasaki’s splitter generated six whiffs and three called strikes Sunday, a season high. One of them fooled Burger so thoroughly that he had to catch himself from falling forward. So, that development was promising.
As for Sasaki’s efficiency issues, walks were never an issue for him in Japan (2.0 walks per nine innings). And coming out of the bullpen late last season and through the playoffs, he showed he could take a more aggressive approach to attacking hitters. So, he at least has a blueprint.
“That’s kind of the mindset of a reliever, because you’re going to go shorter and you’re not going to throw as many pitches, so you can kind of empty the tank,” Roberts said. “With starters, they train for more pitches, more innings. And you have to have it in your head to still have that same mindset and trust that your work can sustain 90-100 pitches with the same mindset and effort. So that’s something that we’ve got to get to that point.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was tracking right-hander Emmet Sheehan’s velocity against the Rangers Saturday, but it wasn’t going to be his primary measurement of the start.
“I think right now, where he’s at, the hitters will tell us the most, not the radar gun,” Roberts said before the Dodgers’ 6-3 win.
Sheehan had both in his first quality start of the season.
Just look at the way he attacked Jake Burger in the sixth inning to close his outing. Sheehan threw three fastballs in the at-bat. That pitch averaged at 95.2 mph on Saturday, almost 1 ½ mph over his season average. And even as his pitch count climbed into the mid-70s, he was sitting at around 94 mph.
Dodger Teoscar Hernández watches his three-run homer clear the left center wall during a win over the Texas Rangers Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
The last pitch he threw was a slider off the plate. Burger was able to get a piece of it, but only enough to ground out to first.
Saturday’s start was Sheehan’s best based on both consistency and results. He held the Rangers to three runs and four hits in six innings.
He’d found a cue in his work between starts. And if the adjustment unlocks a consistent run, that would do a lot to stabilize the Dodgers’ rotation at the back end.
“One of the big things this week was the glove tap,” Sheehan said. “Just timing everything up. Before, I feel like I was getting in good positions, I just wasn’t timing everything up the right way. I think that helped a lot.”
He was cruising through most of it — other than the two home runs he surrendered to Rangers leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo.
Sheehan turned around his start immediately after the first long ball, on the second pitch of the game.
He came in throwing hard, pumping 96.2 mph on the first fastball, a ball inside, and 95.7 on the second. The latter drifted over the plate, and Nimmo lined it to straightaway center field, just over the “395” printed on the wall.
Sheehan, undeterred, retired the next eight batters. Nimmo hit a two-out ground-rule double that bounced over the left-field fence in his next at-bat, but Sheehan struck out Ezequiel Duran on a slider to quickly end the inning.
Only two Rangers besides Nimmo reached base against Sheehan. Evan Carter drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, and Josh Jung led off the sixth with a single into shallow center field.
Other than that, Sheehan recorded six strikeouts and generated mostly groundball contact.
He was also pitching with a lead for most of his outing, thanks to a solo homer from Shohei Ohtani and three-run shot from Teoscar Hernández in the first. The Dodgers added to their lead in the third inning with two walks, a single, and a run-scoring double play.
So, when the Rangers’ lineup turned over again, and Nimmo stepped up to the plate with a runner on base in the sixth, Sheehan was working with a four-run cushion.
Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia celebrates after earning a save during the Dodgers’ win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Sheehan stayed away from his fastball, but Nimmo managed to get a hold of an inside slider.
Again, Sheehan responded with three straight outs, this time all infield grounders.
The Dodgers’ bullpen turned in a scoreless performance for three innings, even with Roberts staying away from closer Edwin Díaz, whose velocity was down Friday in his first blown save of the season.
And in the eighth, center fielder Andy Pages kept up his red-hot offensive start to the season with an RBI single into left field for insurance.
The Dodgers are off to the best offensive start of any National League team, whether they’re measured by runs (89), batting average (.297), slugging percentage (.507) or offensive fWAR (30.0).
The unknown entering the game was Sheehan, who had been working through directional issues in his delivery.
“There’s a little bit of east-west with him, and that’s kind of how he gets his power,” Roberts said. “But I think that towards the end of the year and spring, it got a little bit too east-west, where you’re just not back to front as far as direction.”
Everything was synced up for him Saturday, and even Nimmo couldn’t ruin that breakthrough.
“It can definitely be tough sometimes,” Sheehan said. “The past like month and a half we’ve been trying to work on it. It felt like at times it wasn’t progressing the way it should, but just stuck with it.”
Snell feels good after live BP
Left-hander Blake Snell threw an inning of live batting practice at Dodger Stadium on Saturday before the Dodgers’ game against the Rangers, taking a new step in his rehab progression.
“It’s very big,” Snell said. “…To be able to face two good hitters and feel good — I’ve got a lot of work to do still, but definitely a big step.”
Snell was delayed in his buildup entering spring training, after pitching through the postseason. He also dealt with shoulder issues last season, sidelined for about four months with what the Dodgers identified as inflammation in his left shoulder.
“I feel great,” Snell said. “I’ve done a lot of different things than I did last year when I was in this position. So I feel way better. I’m just very excited about how I feel right now, where I’m at, getting back to some normalcy again feels really good. I just can’t wait to pitch.”
He revisited old workouts, added Pilates to his routine and changed his diet.
Snell, an avid gamer, has also kept up his Twitch livestream activity while on the injured list. He recently responded to a harsh comment from a critic about his injury while streaming, cursing as he challenged anyone to match his World Series contributions amid pain. The clip naturally circulated widely on social media.
“I’m trying to game with my people, then trolls want to get in there and got something to say,” he said and then broke into a smile. “I should watch my language a little bit, but outside of that, it was pretty true. I’m going to have fun, going to be myself. I’ve got to watch my language though. If my mom sees that. … She probably will.”
He’s bracing for her call if she does.
Snell will continue to build up his workload in a simulated game environment, before eventually leaving on a minor-league rehab assignment. He didn’t say how many live BP sessions he’d need before that next step.
“You got to talk to the jefes,” he said.
Sitting in the dugout, Snell nodded up to the field where some of those bosses — president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, general manager Brandon Gomes and Roberts — stood talking.
Roberts later speculated that Snell would build up to about three innings before pitching in games.
“I just miss pitching, it’s what I love,” Snell said. “So to be able to do that again, I was very excited coming to the field today. Like, I finally get to throw and pitch and see where I’m at, see if I’m good, bad, kind of figure myself out.”
On Saturday, he just wanted to throw strikes, see how his stuff played, and get feedback from utility player Tommy Edman and outfielder Alex Call, who faced him.
“The next one I want to be more crisp, want to hit locations more,” he said. “I only have so many starts left before I’m back. So I really have to hone in and make sure these weeks are very important.”
Injury updates
Edman, who underwent ankle surgery this offseason, is still on track to be activated around late May, Roberts said Saturday. In addition to taking live batting practice, he’s been running, but not quite at full speed, according to Roberts.
Shortstop Mookie Betts (strained right oblique) played catch on the field before the game Saturday.
Since 2024, European governing body Uefa has given club coefficients over the latest five-year period an important role via something called “title-holder rebalancing”.
Therefore, should the Champions League winners have also qualified for the league phase via their domestic league position, “the club with the best individual coefficient of all the domestic champions involved in qualifying will enter the league phase directly instead of the original round they had qualified for”.
Ironically, last season’s beneficiaries were Olympiakos, with European champions Paris St-Germain having already qualified as French title winners.
The Piraeus side had finished seven points behind Athens neighbours AEK in the Greek Super League but this season the positions look likely to be reversed.
A 1-0 defeat at home to an AEK side for whom former Hearts left-back James Penrice was back in the starting line-up after a two-game absence leaves Olympiakos five points adrift of the leaders.
Indeed, Jose Luis Mendilibar’s side have slipped to third behind PAOK Salonica, who drew 0-0 at home to Panathinaikos with former Celtic left-back Greg Taylor an unused substitute on the bench.
There are five games left of the title play-offs, during which the top four play one another twice and statisticians suggest Olympiakos only have a 16% chance of securing a 49th domestic title.
Olympiakos are again the club with the most co-efficient points from countries outside the top six in Europe but, if they fail to retain that title, Rangers are next in line for that spot straight into the Champions League’s league phase.
There will be more than a few Rangers supporters monitoring the results when AEK entertain PAOK while Panathinaikos host Olympiakos next on Sunday, 19 April.
Meanwhile, Rangers are attempting to schedule a meeting of Premiership clubs to discusss the use of video assistant referees (VAR), a discussion which may happen in the next fortnight.
Many clubs have publicly expressed concerns about VAR and the general state of refereeing in Scotland.
It’s believed that Rangers have not ruled out withdrawing their financial support of VAR but broadly they believe the system is here to stay.
They might even be prepared to invest more in the technology – for example extra cameras – if they had sufficient confidence that increased investment would lead to better quality decision-making.
When the meeting of clubs takes place there will be an emphasis on coming up with ways to improve the product and get better value for money.
Last month, Paraag Marathe, then the club’s vice-chairman as well as chairman of Leeds United, stood down after discussions with Uefa about multi-club ownership.
Another Rangers director at the time Gene Schneur, also left his role at Ibrox at that time. Neither will be replaced.
Cavenagh also offered his support for manager, Danny Rohl, ahead of the title run-in.
“We are three points off the lead, with seven matches to play,” he said.
“We have complete confidence in Danny, his staff, and our squad. We will approach each match as it comes, and fingers crossed, we will be at the top of the table after 38 matches.”
The Astros had been a mainstay atop the AL West for eight years — claiming seven division titles during that time — but now the division appears to be under new management.
Last season, the upstart Mariners finally broke through after years of promise, winning 90 games and claiming their first division crown since 2001. This season, the club hopes to take the next step forward and reach the World Series for the first time in franchise history. Seattle locked up cleanup man Josh Naylor to a five-year, $92.5-million contract, solidifying their lineup. The M’s also traded for super utilityman Brendan Donovan, who, as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, was named an All-Star for the first time in his career last season.
The Astros, in their third year under manager Joe Espada, are hoping to return to the top of the division. They’ll have their work cut out for them, with just seven players remaining from the Astros’ 2022 World Series team.
Even after a pair of mediocre seasons, the Rangers remained aggressive this winter, making a pair of blockbuster trades, acquiring frontline starter MacKenzie Gore from the Nationals and outfielder Brandon Nimmo from the Mets. Ex-Marlins manager Skip Schumaker will take the reins from four-time World Series champion Bruce Bochy, who did not return as the club’s skipper.
Entering their second season playing in Sacramento, the Athletics grabbed veteran Jeff McNeil from the New York Mets in a trade, while locking up promising youngsters Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson to long-term extensions. The Angels installed rookie manager Kurt Suzuki, replacing Ron Washington.
1 | Seattle Mariners
2025 | 90-72, 1st in West
Last year in playoffs | 2025
After bidding farewell to Eugenio Suárez and Jorge Polanco, the Mariners are betting on young infielders Cole Young and Colt Emerson. Newcomer Brendan Donovan should provide a nice spark to the M’s lineup. 26-year-old Bryan Woo emerged as the club’s ace last season while George Kirby missed the first two months with shoulder inflammation and was never quite right. A healthy Kirby could make a huge difference this season for an already formidable M’s rotation.
2 | Houston Astros
2025 | 87-75, 2nd in West
Last year in playoffs | 2024
Even after an offseason in which the Astros lost stars Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman and Justin Verlander, the team still led the West for most of the season in 2025. One player to watch will be second-year outfielder Cam Smith, who the Astros acquired as the centerpiece of the Tucker trade. It was a tale of two seasons for Smith, who dazzled with a .297/.357/.443 slash line through his first 75 big league games, but hit a snag over his next 59 games, slashing just .153/.248/.232.
3 | Athletics
2025 | 76-86, 4th in West
Last year in playoffs | 2020
Two years after losing 112 games, the A’s showed encouraging progress in their first season in Sacramento. First baseman Nick Kurtz ran away with AL rookie of the year honors, winning the award unanimously, with shortstop Jacob Wilson placing second. Between Kurtz (36), catcher Shea Langeliers (31), designated hitter Brent Rooker (30), left fielder Tyler Soderstrom (25) and right fielder Lawrence Butler (21), the A’s had five players hit for 20 or more homers last season.
4 | Texas Rangers
2025 | 81-81, 3rd in West
Last year in playoffs | 2023
The Rangers have posted just one winning season over the last 10 years, and it came in 2023, the same year that the club won its first-ever World Series. In order for new manager Skip Schumaker to return the Rangers to form, he’s going to need his position players to bounce back in a big way. Freshly-acquired MacKenzie Gore should add length to the Rangers’ rotation, while former Vanderbilt teammates Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker will have an opportunity to establish themselves as formidable major league starters.
5 | Angels
2025 | 72-90, 5th in West
Last year in playoffs | 2014
The Angels upped their win total by nine games from 2024 to 2025, and the club could continue to progress in its first season under rookie manager Kurt Suzuki. General manager Perry Minasian enters the final year of his contract, after the Angels failed to post a winning record in each of his first six seasons.
Rangers say “all parties must be prepared to have their actions and decision-making subjected to proper scrutiny”, with Celtic referencing “serious concerns” raised by supporters about pre-match access arrangements.
The Ibrox club have called for the review to be “thorough and wide-ranging” and to “include the broader context” around the match, from initial decisions on ticket allocation through to the post-match incidents.
Their statement adds: “The disorder that occurred on Sunday was unacceptable and we condemn it unequivocally. Safety must always come first in football, for supporters, players and everyone working in and around the game.
“There are now a number of serious issues which require proper examination. For that reason, we agree that there should be a fully independent review into the events surrounding the match.”
Rangers have vowed to represent the club and their supporters “robustly” but say they will take action – “including the potential withdrawal of ticketing privileges and stadium bans” – against anyone identified and convicted.
The club also say they are “appalled” to discover graffiti mocking the Ibrox disaster, which claimed the lives of 66 supporters in January 1971.
They add: “To desecrate their memory is vile. It is cowardly. It is shameful. This is not football rivalry and it is not banter. It is the abuse of a tragedy that claimed 66 lives.”
Meanwhile, Celtic say they are awaiting a response from the Green Brigade regarding safety and security measures – as required by the police and Glasgow City Council’s Safety Advisory Group – to allow the club “to advocate re-entry” of the banned fan group to Celtic Park.
