WASHINGTON -- Luck was not necessarily on Roki Sasaki's side on Sunday afternoon, but he didn't help himself at times either. Fortunately for him, the Dodgers continued to roll.
Sasaki gave up a career-high six earned runs in his second start of the season, but the Dodgers came back for an 8-6 victory and a three-game sweep of the Nationals. The series finale was delayed by two hours and nine minutes due to a downpour of rain over Nationals Park, an eventuality that both teams had been prepared for heading into the weekend.
The Dodgers trailed by five runs after Sasaki was done on the mound, but after a two-run homer from Dalton Rushing cut into the Nationals' lead in the sixth inning, they surged back in front with a four-run eighth keyed by a two-run single from Santiago Espinal, a run-scoring forceout from Kyle Tucker and a sacrifice fly from Shohei Ohtani. It was the Dodgers' biggest comeback win since April 2, 2025, when they also came back from a five-run deficit to beat the Braves, 6-5.
While his final line was far from ideal, Sasaki was glad that he didn't put his team in an insurmountable deficit.
"It was good to have a game like this," Sasaki said through interpreter Kensuke Okubo, "and what I wanted to do was just focus on myself and just control what I can control."
After holding the Guardians to one run over four-plus innings in his season debut last Monday, Sasaki was unable to take another stride forward, allowing the six runs on five hits (including two home runs) and three walks while striking out five Nationals hitters. He completed five innings on 90 pitches (57 strikes).
Sasaki looked fairly sharp through two scoreless innings to open his start, and he ended on a solid note with a 1-2-3 fifth. But the third and fourth innings got away from him due to a combination of poor location and, yes, a bit of bad luck.
Sasaki entered the bottom of the third inning with a 1-0 lead courtesy of Ohtani, who belted his second home run of the season a Statcast-projected 438 feet to straightaway center at 114.6 mph off the bat. But Sasaki was unable to keep the Dodgers on top, issuing a one-out walk to James Wood before serving up a two-run blast to Luis García Jr. on an elevated four-seamer.
One inning later, Sasaki issued another one-out walk, this time to CJ Abrams, who stole second base. Sasaki was a bad bounce away from getting out of that inning unscathed, as Keibert Ruiz hit a soft grounder to first base with two outs. But the ball ricocheted off the first-base bag and over the head of Freddie Freeman, landing for an RBI single.
"I was one run behind, and I wanted to get out," Sasaki said. "But unfortunately, it hit the base and it ended up like that, so it was kind of disappointing."
Sasaki gave up another base hit to nine-hole hitter José Tena, then served up an 0-2 splitter over the heart of the plate to Wood, who crushed it for a three-run blast. Safe to say, that was not the location that he and Rushing were going for.
"I wanted it in the dirt. He could have bounced it in the grass, I don't care," Rushing said. "And look, it's part of pitching. You're gonna make mistakes. … But at the same time, it's a maturity thing, and hopefully, obviously, he learns from it with that situation."
A bad hop is one thing. Multiple missed locations is another. The latter has been a problem for Sasaki while starting in the big leagues. But to come back from that with a clean fifth inning is a reason that manager Dave Roberts pointed to "potential growth" from the young right-hander.
While the Dodgers would love to see Sasaki dominate as they believe he can, it is just as important that he is able to eat innings. By getting through five, Sasaki helped keep the bullpen a little bit fresher for the next three days: a World Series rematch at Rogers Centre.
"I told him afterwards -- I don't care about the line score, I care about the pitches in totality," Roberts told reporters. "And those ones that we want back, we'll get those back. We'll be mindful of those. But for him to give us that extra inning is going to help us win a couple games in Toronto."