Right before their eyes, the Dodgers have borne witness to Roki Sasaki blossoming into the big league starter they knew he could be. In several ways, the version of Sasaki they've seen of late has been like an entirely new pitcher. His fastball has been harder and more effective. He attacks hitters in the zone, and there's a real sense of confidence when he's on the mound. But at the same time, this version of Sasaki is not new at all. "This is the guy that we saw on video in Japan, and that we hoped to get," manager Dave Roberts said. Sasaki put together his finest performance as a Major Leaguer, setting career highs with 10 strikeouts across seven scoreless innings before Freddie Freeman walked off the Angels, 1-0, on Friday night at Dodger Stadium. In a pitchers' duel against Angels starter Reid Detmers, Sasaki began his outing with just a pair of walks allowed through his first four innings, and he only gave up a pair of hits overall. The contest was in a scoreless tie until the bottom of the ninth, when Freeman took former Dodger Kirby Yates deep for a walk-off blast to seal a series-opening victory. At 24 years and 214 days old, Sasaki became the fourth-youngest Japanese-born pitcher to reach double-digit strikeouts in a Major League game, behind only Shohei Ohtani (twice in 2018, at 23 years and 277 days, 23 years and 312 days) and Kazuhito Tadano (2004, 24 years and 68 days). Sasaki has dominated the Angels in two starts this season, also tossing seven innings of one-run ball last month in Anaheim. That start was viewed as his most complete big league performance at the time, and he has continued to grow with each outing.
