Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki has lost his best pitch — and maybe his identity

WASHINGTON, DC. – Roki Sasaki has lost his signature pitch. 

He’s lost his forkball.

The role that luck played in his grotesque pitching line in the Dodgers’ 8-6 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday can’t be understated, but neither can his transformation into a diluted version of himself.

Here he was pitching against an unimposing opponent, throwing a fastball that was a tick or two slower than usual while mixing in a ho-hum slider because he didn’t have a feel for his out pitch. 

What Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called improvement looked more like an identity crisis for the 24-year-old Sasaki, who bore minimal resemblance to the Japanese-league fireballer considered the world’s No. 1 pitching prospect.

There was always an element of unpredictability with Sasaki’s forkball, which tumbles like a knuckler because of its extremely low spin rate. But Sasaki has started missing badly with the pitch with greater frequency. He threw one against the Nationals that was so off the mark that it ended up in the middle of the plate and was clobbered for a three-run homer by James Wood in a four-run fourth inning for the Nationals. 

To be fair to Sasaki, Wood wouldn’t have come up if not for spectacular misfortune. With two outs in the inning, Keibert Ruiz hit an unthreatening grounder at Freddie Freeman. Before the ball reached Freeman’s glove, however, it hit the bag, popping up over the first baseman’s head and bouncing into right field for a run-scoring single. Two batters later, Wood homered.

Sasaki regrouped to retire the side in the following inning to give manager Dave Roberts the five frames he wanted from him. But Sasaki departed the game with a 6-1 deficit after giving up five hits, including two homers, and three walks. If this counted as progress, it was only because he was even worse in his previous start.

Sasaki’s improved fastball command came at the expense of velocity, which dropped from an average of 97.6 mph in his last start to 96.6 mph. Sasaki has refuted the idea that the arm action required to throw his slider has negatively affected his forkball, but the truth is that he’s never thrown both pitches well at the same time.

What is Sasaki without an overpowering fastball and wipeout forkball? How effective can he be as a fastball-slider pitcher?

As he did after his previous start, Sasaki pushed back when questioned about his forkball. He said he hadn’t lost confidence in the pitch and the reason that he didn’t throw it as much was because he was following the lead of catcher Dalton Rushing.

“I’m not the one deciding,” Sasaki said in Japanese.

But Rushing, at very least, expressed some apprehension about Sasaki’s trademark offering.

“It’s just inconsistent,” Rushing said. “It’s a pitch that if you can’t strike it, it starts to give the opposing team the opportunity to just lay off of it every time you throw it. Maybe there’s a couple technique things we can figure out in his delivery to strike it a little more, or maybe it’s just a mindset (that) you don’t have to throw your best splitter every pitch.”

As for the 0-2 forkball on which Wood homered, where did Rushing want Sasaki to throw it?

“I wanted it in the dirt,” the backup catcher said. “He could have bounced it in the grass, I don’t care. Look, it’s part of pitching. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to lose a couple, but at the same time, it’s a maturity thing and hopefully he learns from it. You usually try to take advantage of 0-2 counts, especially with a guy that’s been struggling with plate discipline.”

Roberts tried to present a more positive outlook of Sasaki’s start.

“Roki getting through the fifth inning was big,” Roberts said. “Some people are going to look at the line score, but if that ball doesn’t hit the bag and the inning’s over, it could have been a different outing for him.”

What else was Roberts going to say?

The front office has shown no interest in sending Sasaki to the minor leagues, meaning he will probably remain in the rotation until Blake Snell returns from the injured list. 

Snell isn’t expected back until late May.