93.4 miles → 94.1 miles of speed gun consciously thrown, Sasaki's excuse and confidence after his first appearance
Aug 16, 2025
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Sasaki, who was transferred to Triple-A Oklahoma City Comets to play a minor league rehabilitation game, started the home game against Albuquerque Izzotops (under the Colorado Rockies) at Chikaso Bricktown Ballpark on the 15th (Korea time), and allowed six hits and three runs in two innings.
He gave up one walk against 13 batters, but he couldn't get any strikeouts. It also allowed three stolen bases, revealing problems in the operation of the game.
As soon as he took the mound in the top of the first inning, he had to endure the opponent's attack. After allowing a series of walks and stolen bases to lead Braden Ward, he threw a 94.5-mile fastball to Ryan Ritter and lost his first run after being hit by a right-handed hit.
He then seemed to find stability by treating Jack Bean and Blaine Cream with a ground ball to the second base and a foul fly to the first base, respectively, but after allowing the first baseman to steal second base, he threw a 94.1 mile fastball to Keston Hiura on the high course in the fifth pitch at the ball count of 1B2S and allowed a right-handed hit to give up another point.
Sasaki, who threw an 83.8-mile splitter to left-handed batter Drew Romo, was then driven to the right in the middle and hit to the first and second bases with two outs, barely finished the inning by catching Sean Buschard with a ground ball to shortstop.
In the second inning, he grounded out lead Owen Miller to first base and gave up a bunt hit to surprised Clifford, but he overpowered Ward with a 93.8-mile fastball to third base and Ritter with a 92.8-mile fastball to second base fly.
Sasaki, who also took the mound in the third inning, was replaced by a heavy hit by the leader Bean with 105.2 miles flying at speed and a 106.9-mile straight hit by Crimea. Both hits flew like a clothesline. In the end, Sasaki, who was replaced, allowed a follow-up pitcher to push one run with consecutive walks, increasing the number of runs to three.
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Sasaki's average fastball speed reached 98.8 miles in 2023, when he was in his prime at the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan, and 96.7 miles last year when he suffered shoulder and abdominal muscle injuries. In addition, the average speed of fastballs taken after entering the Major League this year was 96.0 miles.
It is the first time in 97 days that Sasaki has taken the mound in practice since the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 10. It seems that it would have been difficult to expect speed in the first place because it was his first appearance in the real game after injury, but the problem is that the difference is large.
Even though he played a lot of bullpen pitching and live pitching after recovering from his shoulder injury, the speed he expected did not come out. Sasaki's fastball speed averaged around 96 miles and was up to 97 miles.
It will take a while to regain the Force, which had a maximum speed of 102 miles during its time at Chiba Lotte and a maximum speed of 101.9 miles at WBC in March 2023. Initially, he took the mound with the goal of three innings, but he couldn't even keep this.
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However, the average fastball speed was 93.4 miles in the first inning and 94.1 miles in the second and third innings, with a difference of only 0.7 miles. The top speed was 94.5 miles in the first and 95.7 miles in the second, with only two over 95 miles. Sasaki has the nuance of 'I can raise it as much as I want if I throw hard because I'm conscious of speed', but it doesn't seem to have a significant power pitching effect, at least in terms of speed.
Sasaki said "First and foremost, it was nice to be able to throw without any health concerns. In terms of performance of the game, there were a few things to be solved. I'll study it carefully and apply it to the next game"There is no discomfort in the body, so only the problem of performing the game remains. I'm sure I can take good care of my body. We just have to raise our pitching ability to the level of the big leagues."
Meanwhile, the Dodgers have recently lost four consecutive games due to bullpen difficulties, but they have no plans to use Sasaki as a bullpen. Manager Dave Roberts said, `We see Sasaki as the starting pitcher. You don't know what the starting lineup will be like."
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
