Not much has gone wrong for the Dodgers in recent years, but the reigning champs did just lose back-to-back games for the first time in 2026, falling at the Rockies on Saturday and Sunday. In Sunday’s loss, not only did All-Star closer Edwin Díaz have more concerning struggles, but the Roki Sasaki roller coaster continued.
Manager Dave Roberts said he saw improvement in Sasaki’s outing, compared to where he’d been this season. The 24-year-old righty went 4 2/3 innings, allowing three runs in a 9-6 loss.
The good news? He started with three scoreless frames, matched a career low among regular-season starts with two walks and got seven whiffs with his nasty splitter.
The bad? He couldn’t hang onto a three-run lead, allowing a pair of hard-hit singles in the fourth inning with a walk and a hit batter before a homer, a double and a single to start the fifth. He struck out just two on the day, inducing only one whiff with his fastball on 21 swings.
Colorado collected seven hits, the most Sasaki has allowed in one appearance in his career. Kyle Karros’ long ball also marked the third time in five starts that Sasaki had allowed a homer.
“I thought he was more efficient,” Roberts said. “I thought he got ground balls when he needed to, got some quick fly balls. And I really wanted to get through that fifth inning, but with [TJ] Rumfield up, I felt Alex [Vesia] was going to give us a better chance to kind of keep the game there. But overall, better, better outing.”
Sasaki did manage to keep the ball on the ground nine times, including a pair of double plays. He additionally threw 78 pitches (43 strikes) Sunday, tied for a season low in his second-longest start. But he allowed tons of hard contact. Of 17 balls in play, 10 were hit at 95 mph or harder.
In all, Sasaki slightly lowered his season ERA from 6.23 to 6.11.
“In the long run, I have to do the things I need to work on,” Sasaki said through an interpreter. “But at the same time, there are also the things that [I] need to work on differently, so [I] just keeping making adjustments.”