by Cary Osborne
Long after Andy Pages made a catch in center field, robbing Chicago Cub Michael Busch of a grand slam in the third inning, folds were still in the blue-padded panel from the outfielder crashing into the wall.
It was a distant memory by the end of the game — the Dodgers’ first loss of the season at Dodger Stadium and a 16–0 setback to boot. It’s the largest run-deficit in a shutout loss at home for the Dodgers in franchise history.
But the catch helped reshape Roki Sasaki’s fourth Major League start.
Sasaki still encountered some of the growing pains that were evident in his first three starts, but there was more growth.
His five innings pitched and 81 pitches were his best in the Majors.
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The four-seamer — despite being the pitch Busch hit out for a solo homer in the second inning — was a successful pitch. The Cubs were 2-for-12 against the fastball and he landed 34 strikes out of the 47 times he threw the pitch.
He got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the fifth inning, including getting right fielder Kyle Tucker to pop out with one out.
“I didn’t quite feel comfortable in my first inning but felt like I hit a stride after that first inning, and overall a lot better command,” Sasaki said. “That was something that I was able to continue from my last outing.”
But Sasaki is still trying to find a secondary pitch. He’s still searching for command of the splitter, which he threw 20 times, earning nine strikes. The Cubs swung eight times at the pitch and missed on four.
He tried to put Busch away twice with the pitch in the second inning, but was wide off the plate. He came back with two four-seamers — the second was driven over the wall.
Sasaki was behind to most of the batters he faced. He earned first-pitch strikes on 10 of the 21 batters he faced. The Major League average first-pitch-strike percentage is 61.6%.
“It does put me in a little tough spot considering that I don’t throw a variety of pitches, so today I had to lean on the slider at the end of the game to get something over the plate aside from my fastball,” Sasaki said. “But when my fastball command is good, I feel guys will swing a little bit more on my split.”
Sasaki threw seven sliders in the fifth, earning two outs on the pitch in the frame.
The Dodger bullpen had its shortest work in a Sasaki start, but the Cubs unloaded on relievers Ben Casparius and Luis Garcia. Casparius, who entered the game with nine scoreless innings of relief, allowed six runs. Garcia allowed four.
Position player Miguel Rojas threw a scoreless eighth inning, but allowed five runs in the ninth.
The Dodger offense never got off the ground. Singles from Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández in the first inning represented the only offensive threat.
The Dodgers are hitting .226 as a team through 16 games.
In a rough loss, things go smoother for Roki Sasaki was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.