The middle game of the Dodgers–Phillies series comes Saturday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, with Roki Sasaki hoping the third time is the charm.
The prized 23-year-old right-hander has struggled with command in his first two major league starts has thrown more balls (60) than strikes (57) in his 4⅔ innings, and has walked nine of his 26 batters faced. 34.6 percent would be a fantastic strikeout rate, but it’s untenable as a walk rate.
But the Dodgers aren’t panicking, yet.
“Roki throughout his career has been a command guy He doesn’t walk guys, he fills up strike zones,” manager Dave Roberts said after Sasaki’s last start, on March 29 at Dodger Stadium. Right now where he’s at, there’s some new surroundings. He wants to impress, he wants to pitch well, he wants to keep competing. It’s just not syncing up.
“We’re going to keep working on it, but from the outset I’ve always said and we believe that this is a process. He’s a young player, in his first delve into Major League Baseball. We’re going to keep getting better, go back to work, and get ready for his start in Philadelphia.”
Aaron Nola starts Saturday for the Phillies, in the second season of a seven-year, $172 million contract signed after the 2023 season. The right-hander, MLB’s innings leader since the start of 2017 who has received Cy Young Award votes in four seasons, has faced the Dodgers twice in each of the last three seasons, with a 5.11 ERA, 42 strikeouts, and seven walks in 37 innings.
The Dodgers have won five of those six Nola starts, with the lone loss coming last July 11 in Philadelphia.
While Saturday’s game will be on SportsNet LA, the contest will also be televised by FS1, one of a pair of Dodgers tilts this season on the network. FS1 games are non-exclusive (unlike games on Fox) and also not blacked out locally. Eric Collins, who called Dodgers games from 2009-13, will call play-by-play for FS1 along with analyst A.J. Pierzynski, plus reporter Ken Rosenthal on-site in Philadelphia.
Saturday game info
- Teams: Dodgers at Phillies
- Stadium: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
- Start time: 1:05 p.m. PT
- TV: SportsNet LA, FS1
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)
