GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- The Dodgers saw two versions of Roki Sasaki take the mound on Tuesday afternoon.
One faced five hitters without recording an out. The other set down six hitters in order. The former resembled the Sasaki who struggled in the rotation last season, while the latter seemed much more like the confident Sasaki who seized the closer role in the postseason.
The Dodgers may have quite the strange case on their hands, à la Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But while the literary character struggled to maintain control over his alter ego, Sasaki has continued to have issues with commanding his fastball.
Sasaki labored through the first inning of an eventual 5-4 Dodgers win over the Guardians, issuing three walks and giving up a grand slam to Kyle Manzardo. He was pulled by manager Dave Roberts before recording an out.
But when Sasaki reentered for the second inning, which is allowed in spring games, he made the most of his clean slate. After missing twice to open the new frame, he went three-up, three-down with two swinging strikeouts on his splitter. He came back out for the third inning and again set down three in a row.
"As he gets more experience," Roberts said, "you would expect that to happen in the inning sooner than having to sit for 20 minutes and then come and reset. But it’s part of the learning curve.”
In the first inning, Sasaki allowed four runs, all earned, on three walks and two hits, throwing 23 pitches and landing only eight of them for strikes. In the second and third, he faced the minimum, struck out a pair and landed 13 of his 22 pitches for strikes. He later said mechanical issues were impacting his command.
"I felt my upper body kind of leaning forward during my first two pitches [of the second], and then I kind of raised up my upper body a little bit, and then my body kind of felt better, and everything just clicked after that," Sasaki said through an interpreter. "The result's really bad this time, but my feel and also mechanics kind of matched."
That is the quandary the Dodgers have found themselves in when it comes to Sasaki. There are flashes of the dominant young arm who starred in Nippon Professional Baseball before coming to play stateside, but he has yet to prove that he can consistently dominate big league hitters as a starting pitcher.
The silver lining this spring is that Sasaki's velocity has been in a decent place. He averaged 98 mph with his four-seamer on Tuesday, maxing out at 99.3 mph. He has also been heavily using his new cutter-slider, getting one whiff on four swings, and his splitter has been devastating as ever.
But Sasaki's secondaries can only be so effective when he doesn't have the fastball command to set them up, and that has been a glaring issue through his first two starts.
Last year, after Sasaki got off to a rough start in the rotation, hurt his shoulder and worked his way back to the Dodgers in a relief role, he focused on dialing in his lower-half mechanics to improve his velocity. On Tuesday, Sasaki felt that something was off with his upper body, leading to his command issues.
"I was able to find something I could really trust," Sasaki said. "But I still need to work on [it] to reproduce in the game."
The Dodgers' pitching depth has already taken some hits this spring. Both Blake Snell, who would have been part of the season-opening rotation, and Gavin Stone, who would have had to earn his spot, are not expected to be ready in time for Opening Day. Only three pitchers have truly locked down spots in the rotation -- Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani -- and a combination of Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski and River Ryan are in the mix to round out the group.
Roberts reiterated what he said earlier in Spring Training: He expects Sasaki to break camp in the rotation, but he has to perform. After two underwhelming starts, that is still how the Dodgers view the situation.
“I think it can change. But I don’t think it’s gonna change before we break," Roberts said. "Building him up, we see him as a starter, and giving him every opportunity for success. But again, we still gotta coach him up, and he’s still gotta continue to get outs and work ahead like Major League starters do.”