Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) wipes his brow in between batters with the bases loaded during the third inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) rounds the bases after hitting a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani watches his home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani watches his home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
Fans react after Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) hit a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
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Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
LOS ANGELES – Sunday’s pitching matchup was an unfair comparison waiting to happen.
Roki Sasaki weaved all over the road like a student driver, allowing 10 of the 22 batters he faced to reach base (five hits, five walks) and needing 94 pitches to get through just four innings. But somehow, he avoided a crash and allowed just two runs.
Meanwhile, two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom gave up a home run to Shohei Ohtani on his first pitch of the game, then kept MLB’s most productive offense so far this season in check for six innings as the Texas Rangers salvaged the final game of the three-game series by handing the Dodgers a 5-2 defeat.
Sasaki established his brand in the first inning of this one. He gave up a single to the first batter he faced, then walked the next. But he struck out the next three, getting Corey Seager and Jake Burger on fastballs and Joc Pederson on a splitter.
There was more traffic in the second inning (a walk and a double), but the Rangers didn’t break the seal on Sasaki until Evan Carter’s leadoff home run in the third inning. A single-walk-single-walk sequence after there were two outs in the inning produced another run.
Sasaki’s best inning of an erratic afternoon might have been the fourth. He walked another batter but didn’t allow another baserunner.
Sasaki was all over the Statcast map in this outing. His 94 pitches included just 53 strikes. The Rangers swung at 40 of those and missed 15 times, including five of 11 swings at the slider Sasaki has been trying to develop as his third pitch. He struck out six.
If limiting damage was the highlight of Sunday’s start, the support for Sasaki as a starting pitcher continues to come more from the Dodgers’ front office than the on-field results.
Sunday was Sasaki’s 11th MLB start. In those starts, he has a 5.13 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP thanks to 78 baserunners (43 hits, 32 walks, three hit batters). Despite all the hype of his 100-mph fastball and devastating splitter when MLB teams were courting him, he has just 39 strikeouts in 47⅓ innings as a starter.
Ohtani’s leadoff home run was his second in as many days, but it was not a harbinger of deGrom vulnerability. He allowed just three more hits in his six innings, striking out nine.
The Dodgers ran themselves out of their best potential scoring opportunity against deGrom. Alex Call led off the third inning with a single, and Ohtani walked with one out. With Kyle Tucker at the plate, both runners took off, but Call put on the brakes between second and third. Ohtani kept going, and Call was tagged out.
Sasaki gets credit for being more adept at avoiding damage Sunday than the Dodgers’ bullpen. The Rangers made it a 3-1 lead with a run in the sixth inning when Edgardo Henriquez made a wild throw on a bunt. The Dodgers matched that on an RBI single by Tucker in the seventh, breaking a 1-for-11 stretch for him this weekend (and 4-for-23 over a seven-game stretch). But the Rangers pulled away with two runs in the eighth against Ben Casparius and Will Klein.