{"id":701897,"date":"2026-05-18T03:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T03:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/701897\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T03:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T03:54:16","slug":"roki-sasaki-offense-dominate-as-dodgers-rout-angels-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/701897\/","title":{"rendered":"Roki Sasaki, offense dominate as Dodgers rout Angels again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki<\/a>\u2019s first pitch after giving up a double to Angels star Mike Trout proved he wasn\u2019t afraid to go back into the strike zone.<\/p>\n

He landed his forkball, the slower version of the new splitter that he introduced this season, for a strike to Nolan Schanuel. Then he tested Schanuel with another forkball, this time out of the zone, and a low fastball.<\/p>\n

Now behind in the count, he went back to the first spot, this time with the fastball. Schanuel fouled it off. Time to switch things up with a slider, which Schanuel also got a piece of. Then the putaway pitch: a forkball on the edge of the plate for a whiff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of those things where you kind of just picked one of the three [pitches] that you wanted to use to get ahead,\u201d catcher Dalton Rushing said Sunday after the Dodgers<\/a> routed the Angels, 10-1<\/a>. \u201cAnd then from there, you can kind of play the chase card with him a little bit, and get outside of hitters\u2019 comfort zone. And obviously with the stuff that he has, it\u2019s easy to miss barrels. And we hadn\u2019t quite gotten to see that just yet, and today was obviously a big step.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sequence to Schanuel in the first inning Sunday earned Sasaki the first of his eight strikeouts, the most of his MLB career. He also threw a career-high seven innings while limiting the Angels<\/a> to one run, propelling the Dodgers to a series sweep in Anaheim.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really good momentum for him to carry forth,\u201d Rushing said. \u201cBut at the same time, there\u2019s opportunities for him to get even better. We know that\u2019s not his ceiling. We know what he just did is obviously the best we\u2019ve seen up to this point, but I trust that that guy\u2019s got a lot more in the tank, and I\u2019m going to continue to push him. It was fun to work with him today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when Sasaki has pitched well this season, he\u2019d been searching for efficiency. And on Sunday he found it. He had never before thrown a pitch in the seventh. And Sunday, he needed just five pitches to fly through that inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s been trending,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cIt was just great to see him be efficient and continue to do what he\u2019s telling everyone that he needs to do better. He executed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a good matchup for Sasaki. With a 48% swing rate entering Sunday, the Angels were in the top third in the league. But it was up to Sasaki to take advantage of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cPitch selection is definitely a bit different from hitter to hitter,\u201d Sasaki said through interpreter Kensuke Okubo. \u201cSo I saw the hitters\u2019 reactions and made adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sasaki\u2019s slider generated the most whiffs (seven) of any of his pitches Sunday, according to Statcast. And his new splitter, which he debuted in late April, had a 50% chase rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith him, there was a learning curve as far as adjusting to Major League Baseball,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to sometimes have some failures to kind of be more open, I think. We\u2019ve had the kind of wait-and-see process with Roki. With that, he\u2019s been more open and initiating conversations and being open to things with coaches. I think it\u2019s been great. It\u2019s just been a much better relationship this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 offense, which scored 31 runs in the series, gave Sasaki an early lead to work with. And it put together its big five-run rally with two outs in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n

\"Shohei <\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani hits an RBI single in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n

(Jessie Alcheh \/ AP)<\/p>\n

The three hitters who drove in runs that inning, Shohei Ohtani, Andy Pages and Kyle Tucker, had been trending upward at the plate of late, a promising sign for an offense overdue for a hot streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy strike-zone awareness is a lot better,\u201d Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m seeing the ball better, the K-zone better. But also the angle of the baseball that\u2019s taking off from my bat, the higher I see, the more home runs I would expect to see. \u2026 I feel like the posture at setup is pretty much key to a lot of my success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sweep solidified the Dodgers\u2019 spot at the top of the NL West standings<\/a> before heading to San Diego to face their division rival.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s momentum for us,\u201d Rushing said.\u201d I think everyone knows, when this offense gets momentum, it gets pretty scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dodgers get pitching help<\/p>\n

As the Dodgers<\/a> navigate the ripple effects of a series of recent pitching injuries, they added depth on Sunday by acquiring left-hander Eric Lauer<\/a> from the Blue Jays for cash considerations.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s expected to join the Dodgers in San Diego this week, and Roberts said he\u2019s initially picturing Lauer in a length role out of the bullpen.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays designated Lauer for assignment last week, after a bumpy start to the season. Lauer had yielded a league-leading 11 home runs in eight appearances.<\/p>\n

It was a contrast to the far steadier presence he\u2019d provided on the mound last year en route to an American League pennant, when he posted a 3.18 ERA in the regular season in a swingman role and 3.12 in the postseason. Lauer didn\u2019t give up a run against the Dodgers in two World Series appearances, including 4 2\/3 innings in Game 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers transferred right-hander Brusdar Graterol<\/a> (right shoulder surgery recovery) to the 60-day injured list.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers, who had to pivot to a bullpen game Friday when southpaw Blake Snell (left elbow surgery to remove loose bodies)<\/a> landed on the IL, made a series of bullpen-related roster moves Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

They put left-hander Jack Dreyer<\/a> on the 15-day IL with left shoulder discomfort. Imaging showed \u201cnothing relevant,\u201d other than inflammation, manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said. The Dodgers hope he\u2019ll be ready to be reinstated after a minimum stint.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was warming up yesterday and then felt something in his shoulder, some soreness,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cWe just wanted to be proactive.<\/p>\n

The team also optioned left-hander Charlie Barnes<\/a> to triple-A Oklahoma City. And they recalled two fresh relievers, right-handers Paul Gervase<\/a> and Chayce McDermott<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki\u2019s first pitch after giving up a double to Angels star Mike Trout proved he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[13383,13111,5,377,7880,39,1497,2335,1165,4332,4333,38215,88312,774,57,3224,4331,4,88313,82263,88311,1830,1479,1646],"class_list":["post-701897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-15-day-il","tag-assignment-last-week","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-dodger","tag-dodgers","tag-eric-lauer","tag-home-run","tag-la","tag-la-dodgers","tag-ladodgers","tag-lauer","tag-left-shoulder-discomfort","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesdodgers","tag-mlb","tag-recent-pitching-injury","tag-right-shoulder-surgery-recovery","tag-right-hander-brusdar-graterol","tag-roster","tag-season","tag-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116593561932959275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}