Roki Sasaki puts his best start for the Dodgers in victory on Phillies

Philadelphia – The Dodgers, as the Dave Roberts manager had said it several times when they were asked about Roki Sasaki in the first weeks of the season, knew what they had registered.

Long before his arrival this winter, the dodgers were already fascinated with the sasaki stuff; From its rapid upper MPH ball from the 90s to a range of fork rosary that their assessors (like many the rest of the baseball industry) classified as an elite level.

But they also knew that Sasaki was not a finished product; The kind of development talent which, with less raw talents, would be almost certainly among minors to polish his job.

Consequently, the challenge for this season, at least, was how Sasaki could continue to improve the finest details of his game while acclimating an immediate transition from Japan to the big leagues.

And after two tremors are starting to start its recruit season, Sasaki finally laid the foundations for future growth on Saturday, holding the Philadelphia phillies to a single race on more than four rounds in the 3-1 victory of the Dodgers at the Citizens Bank Park.

“It was the guy we were waiting for to see,” said third goal player Max Mancy.

“Just a construction element,” added Roberts satisfied.

Indeed, it was a total reversal of the first two outings of Sasaki, when it only totaled 4 ⅔ sleeves while walking nine strikers and abandoning three points.

For the first time, his quick shotgun actually struck the right places, instead of being vaporized apart from elsewhere than the striking area.

For the first time, he attacked above the plate, setting up his bad separator to be a putaway weapon as planned.

And, for the first time, Sasaki looked comfortable and confident on a large league mound; Far from the images last week of the launcher seated with red eyes and shocked on the bench after being fired in the second round.

“Before going out there (today), he said to me:” Come on, let’s go! “,” Said receiver Austin Barnes. “I liked it. It was good to see (him) go right there and compete. ”

During his four and more rounds, Sasaki only made sure, all in simple and published only two free passes in a performance of 68 much more efficient throws.

He launched strikes in the first round at 13 of his 17 strikers. He apparently worked in advance in almost each of his counts. And he gave Barnes the luxury of calling the separators on the defensive on the defensive, making up the signing of Sasaki, hitting the breaking ground for his four sticks to the stick with several occasions.

“I think that’s where he must be,” said Barnes. “I just painted with the quick ball, get ahead, put pressure on these strikers and uphold this splitty. Because it’s crazy terrain.”

To do this, Sasaki focused on his quick ball command in his enclosure between the steps, trying to clean his mechanics in reincorporation more of his lower half in his delivery.

“The last time, I felt like I wanted to launch strikes but I couldn’t,” said Sasaki through the interpreter Will Ireton. “I have really worked on my mechanics since this match, and I really felt like I could do it today.”

Despite this, Sasaki recognized that “all week feeling a little anxious”.

“You really have to launch matches to find out if what you feel in the arenas and during training materializes,” said Sasaki.

Which, he added, made the performance on Saturday “a lot of a baoster of trust”.

“He will probably not leave how much he needed it,” resolved Roberts, “but to get a (successful) departure from the major league, given how the first couple went … I think it was certainly a big positive.”

Sasaki’s only real problem occurred during the first round, when the phillies took off with simple consecutive Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner, which led to a quick race.

After that, Sasaki withdrew the next nine consecutive, 12 out of 13 in total, and was only withdrawn after the fifth round started with a call to the Borderline and a simple bloop on the right.

It was an intentionally early crochet of Roberts, who had not only an enclosure based to deploy (four dodgers readers combined for five -sleeves aimless) but were also wary of overcoming Sasaki after the way he had launched at this point.

“He kept his composure, his balance and continued to execute land,” said Roberts. “In a way, leaving the release wanting more, I think it’s a good thing for him.”

The Dodgers bats, on the other hand, provided Sasaki with fair support. Kiké Hernández overturned the deficit of a start of the round in the second round, hitting a shot of two rounds, the starter of the Phillies Aaron Nola for his third circuit (which represents his three strokes during the first 10 games).

Michael Conforto added insurance in the sixth with a solo home run, continuing its solid start to the season of Dodgers (average of 0.108, 1,111 ops, five products produced).

The defense also bypassed, preventing Sasaki from being billed an additional race after his departure in the fifth. With runners in the corners and one, Teoscar Hernández canceled a potential volley of sacrifice after catching the ball in the right field, offering a strong launch for first, and doubled from the base of the Bryson Stott base before JT Realmuto could cross the third plate.

“It was a huge game,” said Roberts. “Ended the Channel, minimized the damage and took this momentum.”

He also closed the book one day of Sasaki banner – one in which he delivered the type of performance that the Dodgers considered at this stage of his career, appeased any question that he might need time for minors and has provided him with a potential plan so that he could follow for the rest of the season.

“Everything is under a microscope right now because of all the media,” said Kiké Hernández. “But if it was another random name that fought during their first two departures, no one would make a big problem. So, I think the child will be more than well. And he showed it today.”