Roki Sasaki did not figure in the decision on Friday night, through no fault of his own as he struck out his MLB-high 10 Angels in seven scoreless frames. The right-hander has allowed five total runs (four earned) over 24 1/3 innings in his last four starts, with 29 strikeouts against only five walks.
You might have seen after Sasaki’s seventh inning on Friday, he was seen in the dugout smiling and laughing in a long conversation with Dodgers strength and conditioning coach Travis Smith. Maddie Lee
at the Los Angeles Times wrote about Sasaki’s maturity in his second major league season, as well as his relationship with Smith and the coaching staff:
“This year, especially, I feel like we’re focusing on talking about game plan and sequencing, because I feel healthy right now,” Sasaki said. “Last year I got hurt, so I’m thinking about my mechanics, all that stuff. So this is a big difference right now.”
Jay Jaffe earlier in the week at FanGraphs looked at Sasaki’s strong May performance, and dug into the details. “Sasaki’s better command and reconfigured repertoire have made for a most welcome development.” Jaffe wrote.
Lauren Theissen at Defector marveled at the “illogical” two-way talents of Shohei Ohtani now that he’s both hitting and pitching full-time again.
Levi Weaver in The Athletic windup newsletter this week wrote, “When watching Ohtani, human nature can almost trick me into forgetting just how distinct a player I’m seeing.”
After Wednesday’s win in Arizona, during which Ohtani allowed two hits and a walk in six scoreless innings and also reached base five times while batting, catcher Will Smith said, “He’s the best player that’s ever walked this earth,” per Katie Woo at The Athletic.
