The Dazzling, Wild Debut of Roki Sasaki
And a story about my near-collision with Shohei
TOKYO —
Hi friends,
I went back to the Big Egg last night for Roki Sasaki’s major league debut. I posted in the chat that he was all over the place during warm-ups (bouncing balls in the dirt and pushing his fastball arm-side), and that I was worried he’d be wild.
Well.
His stuff was unhittable…when it was anywhere near the plate.
Sasaki started strong, pumping three straight fastballs at 100 miles per hour to Ian Happ, and touching 101 on a first pitch heater to Seiya Suzuki (who became the first strikeout victim of his career). It appeared that the answer to the “How do I fix my fastball velocity?” homework assignment he gave all the teams who wanted to sign him was simply “join an American team and then return to Japan.”
These Japanese crowds were so quiet when pitches were being thrown that you could hear the “pop! pop! pop!” of the catcher’s glove. You could also hear Sasaki’s grunts and screams as he let go of the ball, like he was Serena Williams whacking a serve. At one point I closed my eyes to listen to the game, and got chills.
Whatever extra adrenaline was powering his fastball in the first inning had run its course by the second, and his four-seamer settled back down to a mere 97-98. He walked two batters, but escaped any damage by getting Cubs’ top prospect Matt Shaw to pop out, and inducing a hard-luck, hard hit double play ball from Pete Crow-Armstrong.
It unraveled a bit for Sasaki in the 3rd when he couldn’t find the plate at all. His famed splitter looked like a ball out his hand all night, just like in warm-ups. It was easy for hitters to spit on.
After getting Carson Kelly to pop out, he gave up the first major league hit of his career: a squibber up the third base line to Jon Berti, of all people. (If Sasaki becomes a Hall of Famer I hope I remember this bit of trivia, like how Skip Schumaker was the first to collect a knock against Clayton Kershaw, a fact that Skip always reminds the big lefty).
Sasaki then walked Happ, Suzuki, and Kyle Tucker—yes he's a Cub now!— in order, forcing in the first run of his career.
Former Dodger Michael Busch had a chance to exact revenge on his old team with the bases loaded, but was frozen by a perfectly dotted fastball on the outside corner and struck out looking. Then Shaw got his shot with the bags full, but was overwhelmed by the fastball, then annihilated by the two best sliders Sasaki threw all night. Poor Matt Shaw drew Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to begin his MLB career, and at that moment had gone 0-for-6 with three strikeouts, two infield pop outs, and a harmless groundout to second. Woof.
The Dodgers held a 3-1 lead after three innings, and Sasaki showed flashes of brilliance, rising to the moment to get himself out of his own self-inflicted trouble with his ability to strike anyone out at any time. But he had thrown more balls (31), than strikes (25), and manager Dave Roberts had seen enough. “He wanted to stay in the game,” the Dodgers skipper said afterward. “It was a decision I made [to pull him].”
One of the more frustrating aspects about an otherwise spectacular series in Japan was that all four starting pitchers were on a tight pitch count due to it still being mid-March and, well, every manager being frankly terrified of arm injuries. Shōta Imanaga went just four innings on Tuesday night; Sasaki went three, and Justin Steele went four (though, to be fair, he was awful against a Dodger lineup that didn’t even include Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman, and gave up five earned runs).
Yoshinobu Yamamoto should probably be awarded the medal of freedom for pitching five strong innings.
I’m not ready to say that baseball stinks now because starting pitchers are no longer main characters. After all, this is still spring and guys are building up and also jet lag does awful things to a body. But I still don’t love the way all of this is trending.
After the game, Sasaki denied that the anxiety of making his MLB debut in his home country overwhelmed him, and said that he was merely experiencing “a good nervousness.” (And I think I got some free therapy from this young pup with that term???)
He said his “command went awry” due to mechanical problems he will adjust, and called it a good learning experience. He also said he has no idea how different playing in MLB is from playing in Japan because….this MLB game was in Japan. I laughed.
Roberts complimented the kid. “At the end of the day, his talent and compete showed through,” he said, while noting that Sasaki is in a similar spot mentally that Yamamoto was in when he made his stateside debut last year, and that he will have to learn to trust his fastball and command it, because major league hitters are too good to not be attacked with the heater. It seemed as though Sasaki may have tried to be too fine with his pitches instead of just using brute force. But again, it was only his first MLB start. He gave up just one hit and one run over three innings, but walked five.
I had a Larry David-accidentally-tripping-and-injuring-Shaquille O’Neal moment with Shohei Ohtani before the game. I was wandering around lost under the stadium during Dodgers batting practice in an empty hallway (in an area I was allowed to be), when a staffer turned the corner and I almost collided with a large man. It was Shohei.