Dodgers notes: Roki Sasaki’s improvements, slumping offense

Dodgers fans have received more of the same experience they had last year with Roki Sasaki to begin this season, but there are some signs of growth that are starting to appear.

Sasaki has shown flashes of dominance early in games, as characterized by his 0.75 ERA over the first two innings of his six starts, but the wheels fall completely off once the third inning begins, illustrated by an ugly 9.72 ERA over innings 3 and beyond. It hasn’t helped that he is currently tied for the fifth most home runs allowed by qualified pitchers this year.

Over the last three starts, Sasaki has quietly been more effective on the mound. After walking 10 batters over his first 13 innings on the year, he has walked only five through his last 15 2/3 innings. On Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals, Sasaki showed that he could bounce back after a rough inning by setting down his final 10 hitters in a row, managing six full innings for the first time while tossing a career-high 104 pitches.

Sasaki spoke about his ability to overcome the three-run third and deliver positive results through the middle innings on Saturday, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.

Dave Roberts spoke about Sasaki’s growth as a major league starter following Saturday’s loss to St. Louis, noting that there are hurdles that have yet to be overcome, per Plunkett.

Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times notes that Mark Prior has worked with Sasaki on developing a new splitter that’s around six miles per hour faster than his ordinary splitter, and that has been a key reason for his recent effectiveness.

The Dodgers offensively are in the midst of a dormant five-game stretch where they have totaled just 12 runs as a team, and they were nearly shut out on Saturday had it not been for a two-run, two-out rally in the top of the ninth where they had the potential tying and go-ahead runners on base.

Andy Pages— who added to the rally with an RBI single to make it a one-run Dodgers deficit— noted that the rally might have lit a spark within this struggling offense, but the importance is maintaining good at-bats top through bottom, per Sonja Chen of MLB.com.

Facing against an old friend on Sunday in Dustin May, who carries a 5.28 over his first six starts as a Cardinal, Dave Roberts hopes that the Dodgers bats can wake up and salvage the series against a pitcher they’re quite familiar with, per Chen.