LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts knew what he was seeing from Roki Sasaki. After all, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager had seen it before, on video from when Sasaki dominated the conversation from halfway around the world.Few Japanese pitchers have enjoyed the kind of fame Sasaki commanded before even throwing a big-league pitch, in part because of Sasaki’s dominance with an electrifying fastball. Few pitchers have flummoxed evaluators more than Sasaki did in his first few months with the Dodgers, as he tried to figure out what was missing.The Sasaki of old appears to have arrived stateside. He punctuated that further Friday night, delivering seven scoreless innings while striking out an MLB career-best 10 hitters against a paltry Los Angeles Angels lineup in an eventual 1-0 walk-off win.“This is the guy that we saw on video in Japan and that we hoped to get,” Roberts said.“It’s not what I would say we expected,” said Freddie Freeman, who hit the game-winning home run. “It’s what we heard.”
Báilalo Roki! pic.twitter.com/eaIUHIxNIS
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 6, 2026Sasaki has been searching for this version of himself since before he even made the move to the majors at age 23. He exited an injury-plagued final season in Japan with a homework assignment for prospective big-league clubs, asking them to help him rediscover his fastball velocity and recapture what had made him great. The ensuing process challenged his own confidence, he admitted earlier this season. He did not point to a single thing that has brought him back. Instead, he alluded to a series of mechanical tweaks, each aligning like the numbers on a padlock.“Everything is kind of coming together now,” Sasaki said through interpreter Kensuke Okubo.
