Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki’s first pitch after giving up a double to Angels star Mike Trout proved he wasn’t afraid to go back into the strike zone.
He landed his forkball, the slower version of the new splitter that he introduced this season, for a strike to Nolan Schanuel. Then he tested Schanuel with another forkball, this time out of the zone, and a low fastball.
Now behind in the count, he went back to the first spot, this time with the fastball. Schanuel fouled it off. Time to switch things up with a slider, which Schanuel also got a piece of. Then the putaway pitch: a forkball on the edge of the plate for a whiff.
“It was one of those things where you kind of just picked one of the three [pitches] that you wanted to use to get ahead,” catcher Dalton Rushing said Sunday after the Dodgers routed the Angels, 10-1. “And then from there, you can kind of play the chase card with him a little bit, and get outside of hitters’ comfort zone. And obviously with the stuff that he has, it’s easy to miss barrels. And we hadn’t quite gotten to see that just yet, and today was obviously a big step.”
That sequence to Schanuel in the first inning Sunday earned Sasaki the first of his eight strikeouts, the most of his MLB career. He also threw a career-high seven innings while limiting the Angels to one run, propelling the Dodgers to a series sweep in Anaheim.
“It’s really good momentum for him to carry forth,” Rushing said. “But at the same time, there’s opportunities for him to get even better. We know that’s not his ceiling. We know what he just did is obviously the best we’ve seen up to this point, but I trust that that guy’s got a lot more in the tank, and I’m going to continue to push him. It was fun to work with him today.”
Even when Sasaki has pitched well this season, he’d been searching for efficiency. And on Sunday he found it. He had never before thrown a pitch in the seventh. And Sunday, he needed just five pitches to fly through that inning.
“I think he’s been trending,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It was just great to see him be efficient and continue to do what he’s telling everyone that he needs to do better. He executed that.”
It was a good matchup for Sasaki. With a 48% swing rate entering Sunday, the Angels were in the top third in the league. But it was up to Sasaki to take advantage of that.
“Pitch selection is definitely a bit different from hitter to hitter,” Sasaki said through interpreter Kensuke Okubo. “So I saw the hitters’ reactions and made adjustments.”
Sasaki’s slider generated the most whiffs (seven) of any of his pitches Sunday, according to Statcast. And his new splitter, which he debuted in late April, had a 50% chase rate.
“With him, there was a learning curve as far as adjusting to Major League Baseball,” Roberts said. “You’ve got to sometimes have some failures to kind of be more open, I think. We’ve had the kind of wait-and-see process with Roki. With that, he’s been more open and initiating conversations and being open to things with coaches. I think it’s been great. It’s just been a much better relationship this year.”
The Dodgers’ offense, which scored 31 runs in the series, gave Sasaki an early lead to work with. And it put together its big five-run rally with two outs in the fourth inning.
Shohei Ohtani hits an RBI single in the fourth inning.
(Jessie Alcheh / AP)
The three hitters who drove in runs that inning, Shohei Ohtani, Andy Pages and Kyle Tucker, had been trending upward at the plate of late, a promising sign for an offense overdue for a hot streak.
“My strike-zone awareness is a lot better,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I feel like I’m seeing the ball better, the K-zone better. But also the angle of the baseball that’s taking off from my bat, the higher I see, the more home runs I would expect to see. … I feel like the posture at setup is pretty much key to a lot of my success.”
The sweep solidified the Dodgers’ spot at the top of the NL West standings before heading to San Diego to face their division rival.
“It’s momentum for us,” Rushing said.” I think everyone knows, when this offense gets momentum, it gets pretty scary.”
Dodgers get pitching help
As the Dodgers navigate the ripple effects of a series of recent pitching injuries, they added depth on Sunday by acquiring left-hander Eric Lauer from the Blue Jays for cash considerations.
He’s expected to join the Dodgers in San Diego this week, and Roberts said he’s initially picturing Lauer in a length role out of the bullpen.
The Blue Jays designated Lauer for assignment last week, after a bumpy start to the season. Lauer had yielded a league-leading 11 home runs in eight appearances.
It was a contrast to the far steadier presence he’d provided on the mound last year en route to an American League pennant, when he posted a 3.18 ERA in the regular season in a swingman role and 3.12 in the postseason. Lauer didn’t give up a run against the Dodgers in two World Series appearances, including 4 2/3 innings in Game 3.
To make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers transferred right-hander Brusdar Graterol (right shoulder surgery recovery) to the 60-day injured list.
The Dodgers, who had to pivot to a bullpen game Friday when southpaw Blake Snell (left elbow surgery to remove loose bodies) landed on the IL, made a series of bullpen-related roster moves Sunday morning.
They put left-hander Jack Dreyer on the 15-day IL with left shoulder discomfort. Imaging showed “nothing relevant,” other than inflammation, manager Dave Roberts said. The Dodgers hope he’ll be ready to be reinstated after a minimum stint.
“He was warming up yesterday and then felt something in his shoulder, some soreness,” Roberts said. “We just wanted to be proactive.
The team also optioned left-hander Charlie Barnes to triple-A Oklahoma City. And they recalled two fresh relievers, right-handers Paul Gervase and Chayce McDermott.