In a Major League Baseball matchup on May 11 (local time) at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki (24) started against the San Francisco Giants. He was pulled after 5.1 innings, having allowed 3 runs, and did not factor into the decision.
Sasaki, making his seventh start of the season on eight days’ rest, was aiming for his second win. However, in the second inning, he gave up a leadoff solo home run to Matt Chapman over the right-field wall. After throwing five consecutive fastballs, Chapman connected on a splitter for Sasaki’s sixth straight start allowing a homer, surrendering the first run of the game.
In the third inning, Sasaki walked the leadoff batter, Julio Rodríguez, on a questionable call. With one out, a single and a hit batter loaded the bases. He then faced Chapman again, who had homered in the second, and induced a shallow flyout to right field for the second out. He got the next batter, Ramos, to ground out to third to escape the inning unscathed.
The fourth inning was Sasaki’s first perfect frame of the game. After the Dodgers took a 2-1 lead, he retired the side in order in the fifth as well. He cleared five innings for the third consecutive start, but in the sixth, with runners on second and third and no outs, Heliot Ramos hit a go-ahead two-run double down the left-field line. Sasaki was then removed from the game.
Reliever Ryan Treinen took over with a runner on second and no outs but did not allow any further runs, sparing Sasaki additional damage.
Sasaki’s final line: 5.1 innings, 6 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, 1 hit batter, 5 strikeouts on 91 pitches (60 strikes). His ERA rose to 5.88. In the bottom of the sixth, leadoff hitter Max Muncy hit an 11th-inning tying solo home run to left-center, wiping out Sasaki’s chance of a loss.
Local sports network SNLA compared Sasaki’s first two innings vs. innings three and beyond before the game. His ERA in innings 1-2 was 0.75, but soared to 9.72 from the third inning onward. His WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) also more than doubled from 1.08 to 2.10. With runners in scoring position, he had allowed no hits in the first two innings but a batting average of .474 from the third onward, highlighting his mid- to late-inning struggles.
In his previous start on May 2 (local time) against the St. Louis Cardinals on the road, Sasaki threw a career-high 104 pitches across six innings, allowing three runs on five hits with four strikeouts in a gritty outing, but received little run support and took his third loss (1 win).
