CHICAGO — Roki Sasaki remains in the chrysalis stage of his development – not fully formed.
Over his previous six starts, it looked like Sasaki was starting to sprout wings. He had a 2.55 ERA in those starts, completed seven innings twice and came into his start against the Chicago White Sox Friday night having allowed just one run in his previous 16⅓ innings.
That progress hit a large pothole in the fifth inning at Rate Field as the White Sox scored seven times, chasing Sasaki from the game and going on to beat the Dodgers, 8-2.
It was the first time Sasaki failed to get through at least five innings since April 19 in Colorado. The seven hits he allowed matched a season-high and the seven runs charged to him are the most in any of his 20 MLB starts.
“I don’t think you can expect him to be perfect every time out. He’s on a good run, he really is,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It is a good test for a young player that after he has one like this, how he responds. So that’s something that we’re all waiting to see. But I do think that he’s equipped now with kind of a good base of success.”
That recent success seems to have given Sasaki the confidence to absorb Friday’s failure.
“My fastball was really good today, my stuff was good, so I don’t think it was a step back,” Sasaki said through his interpreter. “But throughout the season I have to continue doing this, so I’ll just keep working on it and make sure I’m in a better spot.”
If the sellout crowd came out to Chicago’s South Side to see a duel of Japanese baseball alums, they were not disappointed – well, they probably were. Both Shohei Ohtani and breakout Sox slugging star Munetaka Murakami were out with injuries.
But Sasaki and Sox left-hander Anthony Kay (a former first-round draft pick of the New York Mets who revived his career with two seasons in Japan) did their best for four innings.
Kay struck out six and got 16 swings-and-misses in that time with a six-pitch mix heavy on the soft stuff – he threw just 10 four-seam fastballs in his first 77 pitches.
The Dodgers got to him in the second inning when they loaded the bases with no outs. DH-for-the-day Santiago Espinal drove in two runs with a single. The Dodgers re-loaded the bases with one out but scored no more. They drove Kay’s pitch count up enough to get him out of the game after five innings.
But Miguel Rojas’ two-out single in the third inning gave them their last baserunner of the night. The White Sox retired the final 19 Dodgers batters in order.
It didn’t matter after the scorched earth of the White Sox’s fifth inning.
Sasaki gave up a solo home run to Andrew Benintendi in the first inning and singles in each of the next three. Then he started trouble for himself by walking the first batter in the fifth.
The next three had hits – a single by No. 9 hitter Drew Romo, an RBI single by Sam Antonacci and an RBI double by former Dodger Miguel Vargas that gave the White Sox the lead.
Sasaki struck out Benintendi for the first out of the inning – and his last out of the night. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases and forced in a run. Roberts pulled Sasaki at that point.
“My offspeed pitch wasn’t really good today,” Sasaki said. “So the third time through the order, I wasn’t able to get ahead in the count, I fell behind. So I couldn’t get those outs easily.
“Command was a little off. Especially, I couldn’t stay over the plate. It was just off arm-side a little bit. So I couldn’t make adjustments.”
Blake Treinen wasn’t the fireman Roberts was hoping for. The veteran reliever gave up a two-run single to Chase Meidroth and a two-run triple to Tristan Peters before closing out the inning. The White Sox sent 11 batters to the plate in the decisive inning, had five hits and walked three times.
“When you see numbers of seven, or five, or four, six, those things are hard to overcome,” Roberts said. “When you give up one, two, three to limit damage, then you have a chance to win. As good as our offense is, it’s hard to weather those innings.”
Only one of the seven runs was charged to Treinen. But he has given up six hits and walked four in his past 3 1/3 innings.
“I think Blake physically feels good. I think that certainly he doesn’t feel confident with his entire pitch mix,” Roberts said. “The sinker’s been good all year. Today, the ball was up a lot. Obviously kind of with where we were at, he had a run of left-handed hitters. You still have to find a way to minimize some damage there. But he wasn’t able to do that.
“I think overall we’re trying to get him to get some confidence. I think that he’s been there, done that, but I think even him, you’ve got to have some success by way of performance to feel good when you take the mound.”
The Dodgers’ pitching staff has had plenty of success this season — but not this week. Over their past five games (three losses), they have given up 39 runs – 19 charged to starters in 22 2/3 innings, 20 to the bullpen in 20 1/3 innings.
“That’s one thing that Roki’s done a really nice job of, and as a staff we’ve done a pretty good job of — not allowing the huge inning,” Roberts said. “The last couple times, in the last four or five games, we’ve given up big numbers. Unfortunately that happens.”