Roki Sasaki repeatedly averted disaster Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately for the Dodgers, the rest of the team couldn’t do the same.
In a 5-2 loss to the Rangers, Sasaki was not sharp, giving up five hits and five walks over a four-inning outing marred by continued command issues. However, he somehow limited the damage to just two runs.
The Dodgers, who received a first-inning home run from Shohei Ohtani, could not overcome Roki Sasaki’s shaky start in their loss Sunday to the Rangers. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect The bigger problems, at least in Sunday’s defeat, came in a string of sloppy mistakes incurred by the rest of the roster.
Sasaki might have been credited with the losing decision. But the team missed numerous chances to help get him off the hook.
Offensively, the Dodgers never got going against two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom, despite a leadoff home run from Shohei Ohtani.
They tallied only six hits while going 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They left nine total men on base, including two stranded in both the fifth inning (when Kyle Tucker struck out on a changeup in the dirt) and the seventh (when an RBI single from Tucker was sandwiched around rally-killing pop-outs from Ohtani and Andy Pages).
More maddening, however, were the mental miscues that poured further salt into the wound.
There was a baserunning blunder that extinguished another two-on, two-out threat in the bottom of the third –– when a botched double-steal by Alex Call and Ohtani led to Call getting caught in a rundown that ended the inning.
Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki was not sharp, giving up five hits and five walks over a four-inning outing marred by continued command issues. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect There were defensive breakdowns that helped the Rangers (8-7) score insurance runs in the sixth and eighth innings –– the first on an Edgardo Henriquez throwing error that put a runner at third base, setting up Brandon Nimmo for an RBI grounder; the next on a wild pitch from Will Klein that brought another run across the plate.
The Dodgers (11-4) also burned both of their ABS challenges in the third inning, the latter coming on an ill-advised appeal from Hyeseong Kim after he was correctly rung up on a called third strike.
And even the one time the Rangers gifted them an opportunity, on a dropped Freddie Freeman pop-up in the sixth, the Dodgers failed to take advantage.
With the chance to complete a series sweep, it was instead that type of day.
The Dodgers still won this weekend’s series and remain the majors’ winningest team with victories in seven of their last nine games.
But their two losses in that span –– including last Wednesday’s defeat in Toronto –– both resulted from poor fundamentals and self-inflicted mishaps.
As good as the Dodgers are, it’s a reminder that their margin for error is only so big.
Two days ago, manager Dave Roberts noted that –– despite reaching base in every game this season –– Ohtani “hasn’t really got going yet.”
Two days later, the four-time MVP is looking a lot more like his normal self.
After hitting a leadoff homer Saturday, Ohtani did the same on the first pitch of Sunday’s game, clobbering his fifth total long ball of the season on an inner-half fastball from deGrom.
Later, he worked an excellent walk in the third inning, fouling off an elevated full-count fastball before laying off a slider. By the fifth, the Rangers had seen enough of him, electing for an intentional walk with a runner at second and two outs.
It wasn’t a perfect day from Ohtani, whose pop-out on a center-cut, first-pitch fastball in the seventh was one of several poor situational at-bats from the team. He also struck out in his final at-bat in the ninth.
Still, he finished the day batting .286 and with an OPS of .996. His on-base streak, dating back to last year, is also up to 46 games.
On the bright side, Sasaki recorded an MLB career-high six strikeouts and held the Rangers to 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
He needed to do so, however, to avoid what probably should’ve been a nightmarish day.
Once again, the former right-handed phenom lacked command, dealt with traffic and was inefficient in his third start of the season. The 10 baserunners he put aboard were also an MLB career high.
In the first and second innings, Sasaki narrowly wiggled out of two-on jams. But the magic ran out in the third, when Evan Carter smoked a leadoff homer and Josh Smith hit a two-out RBI single.
That Sasaki’s day didn’t spiral from there –– he stranded the bases loaded later in the third, then worked around another walk in the fourth –– was at least one silver lining.
Alas, there were few others from his outing Sunday, which left him with a 6.23 ERA through three starts this year.
The Dodgers welcome the Mets to town this week for a three-game series. Justin Wrobleski (1-0, 4.00 ERA) will start in Monday’s opener, opposite struggling Mets left-hander David Peterson (0-2, 6.14 ERA).
