In a wild, high-scoring affair that saw the Los Angeles Dodgers outlast the Arizona Diamondbacks 14–11, neither starting pitcher was able to find much rhythm—least of all Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki.
Making his eighth start of the season, Sasaki pitched for the first time on five days’ rest rather than the usual six he’d been accustomed to. The adjustment didn’t go smoothly. The 23-year-old gave up two home runs in the first inning, quickly falling behind 3–1, and never fully recovered. He was pulled after a leadoff walk in the fifth inning, having allowed five runs on five hits over four-plus innings. He didn’t record a single strikeout and issued two walks.
Despite having thrown just 61 pitches, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts opted to go to the bullpen—a move he explained candidly to Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I just felt tonight he was laboring from the outset,” Roberts said. “You could tell by facing 20 hitters and not one strikeout. Guys were taking really good swings. He didn’t have (anything) tonight to put guys away.
I just didn’t feel that he was particularly sharp tonight and commanding the fastball, the split, all that stuff.”
Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher Struggling With Fastball Speed
The primary concern continues to be Sasaki’s fastball. Once a dominant offering in Japan, regularly touching 98–101 mph, the pitch has lost its edge in the majors. On this outing, Sasaki’s fastball averaged just 94.9 mph—down from his season average of 96.1 mph. He threw the pitch 36 times, drawing 12 swings and 12 balls in play. Not a single swing-and-miss.
The troubling trend has reached a critical point: Sasaki’s fastball now has the lowest whiff rate among qualified pitchers in Major League Baseball. Hitters are not only seeing it well—they’re punishing it.
Sasaki is aware of the issue, but says he’s still searching for answers.
“Just really still in this process of finding out what the root cause (is), working with my coaches, talking to people about this,” Sasaki said through his interpreter. “I’m not quite exactly sure and can’t really state exactly the single reason.”
There are multiple contributing factors. Command remains an issue—he struggles to consistently locate the fastball in or around the strike zone. But even when it’s over the plate, it lacks the movement that can make a fastball effective in today’s game. Sasaki’s pitch is relatively flat, giving hitters a clean look and not much deception. That might have worked in Japan with higher velocity and better control, but in the majors, a 95 mph straight fastball is a dangerous offering.
Interestingly, the Dodgers have acknowledged they’ve asked Sasaki to deliberately dial down his velocity to work on command, but the tradeoff hasn’t paid dividends yet. Unless something changes—be it regaining velocity, reshaping the pitch, or adding a new weapon like a cutter or sinker—his path to sustained success remains unclear.
The team has long acknowledged that Sasaki is a work in progress, but there’s an increasing sense that adjustments need to come sooner rather than later.
Sasaki’s outing came with the Dodgers in the midst of a 10-games-in-10-days stretch, short on starting arms. According to the team, Sasaki himself had requested the opportunity to pitch on shorter rest. Yoshinobu Yamamoto had done the same just a day earlier.
Help is on the horizon, however. Clayton Kershaw is expected to return on May 18, and prospect Ben Casparius is being stretched out as a potential rotation option. That should give the Dodgers more flexibility to manage Sasaki’s workload and development more effectively in the coming weeks.