Sasaki draws rave reviews in ‘electric’ debut
GLENDALE, Ariz. — More than the fastball that sat at 98 mph or the three shutout innings, the story of Roki Sasaki‘s debut as a Los Angeles Dodger on Tuesday night was best told through the words of the hitters facing him.
“Nasty,” Austin Hays said.
“Heavy,” TJ Friedl said.
“Electric,” Austin Wynns said.
Sasaki more than earned the praise from the three Cincinnati Reds veterans with 17 combined major league seasons and their future Hall of Fame manager, Terry Francona, who called the 23-year-old’s first spring training outing in a Dodgers uniform “impressive.”
Sasaki, who signed with the Dodgers in January after a lengthy recruiting process in which he chose them over the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays, struck out five in the team’s 4-2 win at Camelback Ranch. Two weeks before the Dodgers kick off the 2025 MLB season in Japan, where he starred for the past four years with the Chiba Lotte Mariners, Sasaki reinforced why Los Angeles is comfortable starting him in the second game of such a high-profile series.
Beyond his high-octane fastball, which peaked at 99.3 mph, Sasaki unleashed a split-fingered fastball evaluators believe is among the best in the world — and generated seven misses on eight swings.
“Some break straight down, some go to the left, some go to the right,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So it is tough to square it up. You just don’t know what it’s going to do.”
Sasaki, who entered the game after a four-inning start from countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto, shook off a shaky start in which he allowed a hard-hit single to Wynns and followed with a 97 mph fastball to the gut of Stuart Fairchild, who was squaring to bunt. Sasaki then struck out two Reds regulars, Friedl and Matt McLain, staring at splitters.
“The splitter was like two different splitters from what I saw,” Friedl said.
Sasaki signed with the Dodgers for a $6.5 million bonus in January — a fraction of what he would have earned had he waited two more years and come to Major League Baseball as an international free agent — and has spent spring training trying to fine-tune his stuff, particularly the fastball that has peaked at 102.5 mph but lost oomph last year. Time spent in the Dodgers’ pitching lab helped Sasaki with his mechanics. While he said he felt a combination of excitement and nervousness before entering the game Tuesday, he focused once he reached the mound.
“Today’s the fruit of all the hard work that I put in during the offseason and the first part of spring training,” Sasaki said.
A leadoff double from All-Star shortstop Elly De La Cruz, a walk to Christian Encarnacion-Strand and a wild pitch left Sasaki facing trouble in the sixth, but he induced a popout from Noelvi Marte to conclude the inning. Two more strikeouts in a hitless seventh ended his night on 46 pitches, 26 of which were strikes.
“We’re going to continue to learn more from Roki,” Roberts said. “And obviously he’s pitched in a lot of big games in his career, but you’re also in an environment where he’s comfortable. This is something that’s all new to him. And so he’s learning on the fly and we’re asking a lot of him, but there’s a lot of confidence supporting him.”
Roberts called it a “good night for the Dodgers,” who added Cy Young winner Blake Snell to a rotation that already included All-Star Tyler Glasnow and will later add future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Ohtani, who is returning from his second Tommy John surgery. Surrounded by stars, Sasaki still will get the ball March 19 against the Chicago Cubs, one day after Yamamoto opens the season.
Sasaki will start in his final outing of the spring on March 11, Roberts said, before the highly anticipated series in the Tokyo Dome. He’ll do so having found success in his first taste of major league hitters outside of the World Baseball Classic.
“A couple things I noticed with big league hitters: They do hit mistakes, and they do take some splits that I threw,” Sasaki said. “But I did feel really good about being able to jam some hitters. As long as I throw quality pitches, I should be able to get these guys out.”
The Baltimore Orioles are “very, very hopeful” that star shortstop Gunnar Henderson (intercostal strain) will be ready for Opening Day.
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told reporters Wednesday that Henderson suffered a mild strain on his right side.
“I’m very, very hopeful. But we’re going to not push a strain there, and we want to make sure that he gets it taken care of. It’s one of those sensitive areas where we don’t want anything to reoccur,” Hyde said.
Henderson departed last Thursday’s 11-8 spring training victory over the Toronto Blue Jays after the first inning with what the team termed “lower right side discomfort.” Henderson made a leaping catch in the top of the first inning and apparently felt soreness after hitting the ground.
Henderson is batting .167 in six plate appearances so far this spring.
The 2023 American League Rookie of the Year earned his first All-Star nod in 2024 batting .281/.364/.529 with 37 home runs and 92 RBIs. He also stole 21 bases. He finished fourth in MVP balloting.
Henderson dealt with a left oblique injury during spring training in 2024 but recovered in time for the start of the regular season.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – New Houston Astros first baseman Christian Walker was scratched from the lineup for a spring training game Wednesday because of soreness in his left oblique.
Walker missed more than a month last season with Arizona because of a strained left oblique muscle. He joined the Astros on a $60 million, three-year contract during the offseason.
In his first four spring training games for Houston, Walker was 4 for 8 with three doubles. He also had two walks.
Adding a first baseman over the offseason was a priority for the Astros after struggling Jose Abreu was released less than halfway through a $58.5 million, three-year contract.
Walker, who turns 34 on March 28, hit .251 with 26 home runs and 84 RBIs in 130 games for the Diamondbacks last season. He won his third consecutive Gold Glove at first base.
In 832 big league games, Walker has hit .250 with 147 homers. All but 13 of those games came with Arizona over the past eight seasons, after his MLB debut with Baltimore in 2014 and 2015.
Walker had two stints on the injured list because of right oblique issues in 2021. He played 160 games in 2022 and 157 in 2023, hitting 69 homers and driving in 197 runs combined over those two seasons.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The Hall of Fame made some small adjustments to its veterans committee system to limit people with relatively little support from repeatedly remaining on future ballots, a decision that could make it harder to gain entry to Cooperstown for steroids-tainted stars such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.
Any candidate on the eight-person ballot who receives fewer than five votes from the 16-member panel will not be eligible for that committee’s ballot during the next three-year cycle, the hall said Wednesday. A candidate who is dropped, later reappears on a ballot and again receives fewer than five votes would be barred from future ballot appearances.
Bonds, Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro and Albert Belle each received fewer than four votes in December 2022, when Fred McGriff was a unanimous pick. Bonds and Clemens were on a hall ballot for the first time since their 10th and final appearances on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. The rules change could limit reappraisals of their candidacies.
In addition, the historical overview committee appointed by the BBWAA that selects the ballot candidates must also be approved by the hall’s board of directors. The hall said the decisions were made by its board during a Feb. 26 meeting in Orlando, Florida.
In 2022, the hall restructured its veterans committees for the third time in 12 years, setting up panels to consider the contemporary era from 1980 on, as well as the classic era. The contemporary baseball era holds separate ballots for players and another for managers, executives and umpires.
Each committee meets every three years: contemporary players from 1980 on will be considered this December; managers, executives and umpires from 1980 on in December 2026; and pre-1980 candidates in December 2027.
Dave Parker and Dick Allen were elected last December and manager Jim Leyland in December 2023.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway