Tokyo series: Electric and messy Roki Sasaki in a very expected MLB debut

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If you want to know why teams were so intrigued Roki Sasaki Potential, watch out for the first debut in the Great League.

If you want to know why the 23-year-old will be ongoing in his first season in the Major League baseball, watch the rest.

Sasaki was electricity early on Wednesday night in the Tokyo dome, hit 100 mph on a radar gun on each of his first three terrain before touched by 101 mph in an effective first inning of 11 wheels and then unevenly for the rest of his three insertions. He threw only 25 of his 56 strikes for strikes and passed five of the 12 shots he faced, one of which brought a lone race he had handed over after entering the loaded base.

But he also descended when he needed to get the blows back to finish his debut and keep the lead intact in a 6-3 victory.

Welcome to Sasaki Extravaganza.

Sasaki’s praised divider is already a offer of many evaluators who considered one of the best in the league. In Cactus League Play, he blinded. Tuesday in JapanHowever, he struggled to command everything. Sasaki threw a divider 15 times but encouraged only one called uncle, one whisk and one ball in the game as Cubs Consistently let it get out of the zone.

Primarily two -wheeled starter, when it does not have its top -notch secondary offer, teams can be prepared largely for a quick ball. This is part of what his escape did in the third inning interesting and intriguing.

Sasaki’s three -digit heat and a mesmerizing divider should make it immediately an effective launch, but the development of a third tone could take it to different heights. When he betrayed three direct walks Ian HappSuzuki and Kyle Tucker In the third he threw them nothing but a fast ball and dividers. He couldn’t find a zone with any ground.

Both Dodgers‘3-1 lead-What came the kindness transferred ball that achieved running, Kiké Hernández the sacrificial fly and the solo Homer of the NLCS MVP Tommy Edmanwhich continues to delete left-handed Pitching Sasaki’s debut in the Grand League threatened to be resolved.

Then the young phenomenon from the rickewarm in Japan showed a kind of glow that has been scouting scouts of MLB for years.

Began to find the outer edge of the plate with his rapids against Michael Buschgetting the third strike for your second exit. And with the cubs still threatening, he moved in a new direction, turning toward the slider to get a rookie Matt Shaw swinging.

“The way he reacted in this situation when he did not have his best command tonight, it says about how competitive he is,” said manager Dave Roberts.

Dodgers ‘Roki Sasaki records the first MLB Stickout in the first inning against Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki

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Overall, Sasaki said that he was pleased with the excursion, which came against the Cubs team, which was among many interested in his services after leaving 29-15 with a 2.10 era and 11.5 shots at nine stabs from Chib Lotte Marines. The cubes were among the eight teams who received a meeting with Sasaki, who was so much sought after this winter not only because of his huge things, but also the modest prices that came with his international amateur status.

Cubs, who traded for Tucker But spent modestly this winterThey did not make a list of three finalists. Dodgers, After more than six years of preference “Reiw Ere monsters” And winning the world series, did.

A year after Shohei Okhtani dedicated more than $ 1 billion, who arrived five times to a polem basin in two games and gave a gift to the audience separated in Tokyo with the fifth he was running in the house on Wednesday, and Yoshinobu yamamotowho earned the opening day on Tuesday and scored five lights of a one-way ball in a 4-1 victory, they won the battle for another sensation born in Japan in Sasaki.

Sasaki, who signed $ 6.5 million with his signing agreement, was not as experienced, polished or realized as a Yamamoto when he made a jump from Nippon Professional Baseball, but his tools were unquestionable, the most obvious exposed during the 19th-Stikeut perfect game when he was 20. MLB teams saw a talent with a ceiling as high as any player in the game.

The injuries, however, limited its production and may have played a role in pruning some warmth a year ago. Faced with MLB competition on Wednesday, Sasaki said it was curious to see how he would react to his belongings. She recognizes that the product is not yet finished and that it will adapt. He wanted to find a team that would help him develop and understand his potential.

When Sasaki met with clubs this winter, he gave them a task for home tasks, asking them how he would help him to help find a reduced speed. He immediately saw an improvement in that department. The speed of his three-digit high-speed ball was not a problem during the Tokyo series, which he said he felt more like an international tournament than at MLB’s debut.

The 25th anniversary of the first game of the regulatory season of MLB Tokyo was a showcase of Japanese talent, which has since moved the state. He even admitted to Okhtani that he felt nervous before the opener – not that it prevented him from performing. Still, the showman, which was out of the off -season, doubled in the first game and hosts it in the second.

Nothing more surprises his manager.

“Shohei seems like a superhero,” Roberts said. “In the biggest games or the biggest moments, it seems to always deliver.”

In the first match for opening between two initial castings born in Japanese, Yamamoto and Shona Imanage are combined to allow only one running, although atypical free passage of limited nights of imanaga on four tunes. Both starters have already established their value in their first season in the big leagues last year.

There were more fascinations about Wednesday for a starter for Dodgers.

Sasaki’s debut went much better than Yamamota a year ago, when he handed over five driving in a catastrophic part of his work in a baseball. It was not a bow of things for Yamamoto, who recorded a 2.53 era in the other 17 starts and shone in the world series.

Sasaki prevented his debut excursion from lowering from the rails similar. He got a double game that ended with inning to work out of trouble in another inning before using his elite things to shut down the databases with back blows in the third.

After an impressive start of the opening, Roberts said he did not see the reason why Yamamoto would not be talking about Cy Young this season.

Equipped with the embarrassment of wealth in their rotation, Dodgers do not need Sasaki to immediately become such a star.

But even in an imperfect debut, he offered a look at a star that could be in front.

Rowan Kavner is MLB writer for Fox Sports. He had previously covered La Dodgers, La Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. The city of LSU, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas and then moved to the West Coast of 2014. Follow it on x on @Rowankavrner.

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