Rookie Roki Sasaki will make his spring training debut on Tuesday night for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but it won’t be as a starting pitcher.
The Dodgers’ prized offseason signing will come out of the bullpen to follow starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the team has announced. Yamamoto will try to go four innings as he ramps up for the regular season, while the Dodgers hope Sasaki can complete three innings.
The Dodgers will host the Cincinnati Reds at Camelback Ranch Tuesday in a game that will start at 8:05 p.m. ET. It will air on SportsNet LA, MLB Network in the Reds’ market, and MLB.TV out of market.
Sasaki has already pitched in what Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior called a “hybrid-b” spring training game against the Chicago White Sox (it did not count as a Cactus League game). White Sox prospect Kyle Teel homered off of him on the second pitch he threw. Before that, he had only thrown bullpen sessions in spring training.
“He’s been a star since he was 16 years old,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, per Sonja Chen of MLB.com. “He probably hasn’t got hit a lot, but I do think that some of these guys that I’ve seen that have been really good, elite pitchers — when they get hit in the mouth, they respond back. He doesn’t run from competition, and that’s part of his pedigree.”
Yoshinobu Yamamato is progressing toward Tokyo Series start for Dodgers
While Sasaki is about to make his first Cactus League appearance, Yamamoto is getting ready for his third appearance. He’s thrown only four innings across two starts and has gotten hit hard, not that it means much. He has allowed seven hits and three earned runs out of the 21 batters he has faced.
Per Chen, the plan is for Yamamoto to start game 1 of the Tokyo Series when the Dodgers face the Chicago Cubs on March 18 and 19. Sasaki will likely follow him in the second game.
Yamamoto only pitched 90 innings last season after suffering a rotator cuff injury in June. When he was on the mound, however, he was brilliant, posting a 3.00 ERA and an even better 2.61 FIP. This season, his goal is to continue contributing — but to do it all year.
“Last year I spent three months rehabilitating,” Yamamoto told reporters last month, via Jack Harris of the L.A. Times. “This year I want to do my best to contribute to the team for the entire season and to become world champions again.”
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