{"id":499501,"date":"2026-02-25T22:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499501\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T22:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:54:10","slug":"dodgers-roki-sasaki-hit-hard-in-first-spring-training-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499501\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki hit hard in first spring training start"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> right-hander Roki Sasaki<\/a> was hit hard and had a tough time finding the strike zone in his first spring training outing on Wednesday, giving up three runs, three hits and two walks over 1 1\/3 innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The hard-throwing Japanese pitcher is trying for a rotation spot after a breakout performance as a reliever in last year’s postseason, when he helped the Dodgers win a second straight World Series.<\/p>\n

He flashed his usual power fastball on Wednesday — striking out three — but just 17 of his 36 pitches were strikes.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

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Sasaki gave up a hard-hit single to leadoff hitter Geraldo Perdomo<\/a>, and Tim Tawa<\/a> walked. With one out, Nolan Arenado<\/a> hit a line-drive double to left that scored Perdomo. Ildemaro Vargas followed with another double, scoring Tawa and Arenado for a 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n

After a mound visit from pitching coach Mark Prior, Sasaki struck out Jordan Lawlar<\/a> and Ryan Waldschmidt to end the inning.<\/p>\n

Sasaki struck out Druw Jones leading off the second, then walked Aramis Garcia and was removed. His fastball topped out at 98.6 mph.<\/p>\n

The lanky 24-year-old entered his rookie year with a lot of fanfare in 2025, but didn’t pitch much during the regular season, finishing 1-1 with a 4.46 ERA over 36 1\/3 erratic innings. He appeared in 10 games, starting eight, and missed more than four months because of a right shoulder impingement.<\/p>\n

Sasaki returned in September and became a key piece of the bullpen during the postseason, giving up just one earned run over 10 2\/3 innings and earning three saves.<\/p>\n

Sasaki agreed to a minor league contract with a $6.5 million signing bonus last offseason, becoming the 13th Japanese player to join the franchise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki was hit hard and had a tough time finding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-499501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}