CHAVEZ RAVINE — Ugh. Suffice to say, Roki Sasaki is not yet in midseason form. Or maybe he is. Whatever the case, walking six in two innings of work is not ideal. He’s continuing to look like a pitcher who is out of his depth in the big leagues. Exhibit A was Monday’s performance in the Dodgers’ 7-7 tie with the Angels. Yuck.

Horrid First Inning

Sasaki started off poorly and got worse. He threw three straight balls to Zach Neto and then hit him with the fourth pitch, which would have been a ball anyway. Then, Miguel Rojas didn’t help much with a poor throw to second on a fielder’s choice. Then, another walk to load the bases. Then, another to score the Angels’ first run. Then, ANOTHER to score a second. 

Dave Roberts pulled the plug on this Ballapalooza. He brought Ronan Kopp in to try to clean up the inning, but Kopp gave up a two-run single before retiring the side. Before the Dodgers hit the bat rack, they were in an 0-4 hole.

Bailed Out by the Pitcher’s Best Friend

The second inning didn’t go a heck of a lot better. Sasaki, back on the mound, started off the inning by plunking Zach Neto again with a runaway splitter. Then, he walked Mike Trout. Here we go again, most of Dodger Stadium moaned. Luckily, he got a couple of ground balls to end the inning (the final two outs on a double play), but it was pretty ugly all around. 

The End of the Road

The third inning finally looked like the Roki Sasaki that we signed up for. He did walk Yoan Moncada to start the inning, but settled down after that. He froze Joe Adell with a splitter for a strikeout, and then buried a split to get Josh Lowe swinging. A softly hit lineout to Miguel Rojas ended the inning. 

Then in the fourth, back to the mean. Sasaki walked the leadoff man to start the inning. So if you’re keeping track at home, Sasaki did this with the leadoff hitters in each inning: HBP, HBP, BB, BB. Those are not good letters. That was finally enough. Dave Roberts came out and took the ball from Sasaki, sending him to the showers with another poor spring performance under his belt. But Ben Casparius surrendered a double and a sacrifice fly, so a fifth run was charged to Roki. His line for the night on 66 pitches (32 strikes): 2.0 IP, 0 H, 5 ER, 6 BB, 2 K. Yes, you read that right. Sasaki gave up FIVE earned runs on ZERO hits. That. Was. Not. Good.

Pretty soon, Dave Roberts, Mark Prior and the Dodger brain trust are going to have to face facts. Roki Sasaki might have a great future ahead of him. But he’s got to get his command issues in order before he takes the mound in a game that counts.

But he won’t. We all know he’s going to have the same issues again his next start. And somewhere, River Ryan is weeping.

The Comeback

The Dodgers eventually crawled back into the game in the bottom of the fourth. Teoscar Hernandez led off the inning by smashing his fifth home run of the spring and his second in as many nights. Then, after a one-out single from Andy Pages, World Series hero Miguel Rojas smashed a two-run dinger to cut the lead to 6-3.

Then, after the Angels scored another to take a 7-3 lead, the Dodgers got back to work. Dalton Rushing‘s bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the sixth tightened the score to 7-4, and then in the eighth, Rushing came up again with a scoring chance. With runners at first and second, Rushing laced a double into the right centerfield gap that plated two more runs to get the Dodgers to within a run. And then, the final blow of the night: an Alex Call double to score Rushing with the tying run. And there the ballgame ended. The Dodgers got the winning run on base in the ninth, but couldn’t bring him around. After three and half hours, this one was mercifully over.

Shohei’s Back!

Tuesday is going to be fun. Not only is it the final game of Spring Training, not only is it the last game of the Freeway Series with the Angels, but it is also the first time Dodger Stadium fans will get a chance to see Shohei Ohtani on the mound this year. Yes, it’s still an exhibition game, but anybody who saw Shohei dismantle the Giants last week knows how seriously Ohtani takes these tune-ups. It will be the last chance to see the Boys in Blue before the regular season starts. See you at the ballgame!

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