On “One Piece” night at Dodger Stadium, Roki Sasaki got shattered into a million.
Somehow, the Dodgers found a way to put the game back together nonetheless.
Six outs into a nightmarish start on Thursday, Sasaki put the Dodgers into a stunning six-run hole.
Three innings later, the Dodgers had dug their way out of it, en route to scoring 12 unanswered runs in an eventual 12-7 win.
Such was the sudden whiplash experienced by a season-high crowd of 54,081 –– many of them in attendance for the team’s hat and trading card giveaway for the Japanese anime show “One Piece.”
For as cataclysmic as Sasaki’s 88-pitch, three-inning clunker was, the Dodgers’ hellacious comeback was just as breath-taking.
First, for the ugly opening chapter. Sasaki gave up a double on his first pitch of the game, threw a wild pitch with the next, then ultimately served up a two-run homer to Manny Machado on a fastball in the heart of the zone.
The disaster was just getting started.
In the second, Sasaki gave up another home run to leadoff hitter Jackson Merrill on an elevated slider. He watched Xander Bogaerts rip a double on another center-cut heater. Then, after a four-pitch walk to Fernando Tatis Jr., he hung a two-out, two-strike slider to Jake Cronenworth that also left the yard for a three-run blast.
He would get four more outs without any further damage from there. But by the time his outing was over, he had yielded seven hits (all of them either doubles or homers), issued two walks (continuing his recent command problems) and raised his season ERA to 5.40 (including a woeful 10.06 mark over his last four starts).
The only silver lining: He got a no-decision.
Just as soon as Sasaki’s implosion was done, the Padres’ pitching staff suffered one of their own.
Dalton Rushing took San Diego starter Randy Vázquez deep for a two-run homer in the second. Max Muncy, with a double, and Kyle Tucker, with a single, drove in a couple more in the third.
At that point, the Padres also turned to their typically stout bullpen. But unlike the Dodgers’ relief corps, which combined for six innings of one-run ball following Sasaki’s early exit, San Diego was unable to find answers there either.
The Dodgers went in front with four runs in the bottom of the fourth, tying the game on a two-run double from Andy Pages before going in front on another RBI double from Mookie Betts (who looked just fine in his return to the lineup following a one-day absence with wrist soreness).
They then stretched the lead with two more runs in the fifth, when back-to-back doubles from Rushing and Tommy Edman were followed by a stolen base from Edman and a run-scoring wild pitch.
In the end, the Dodgers finished with a season-high 17 hits, including four each from Rushing and Tucker, and two apiece from Betts, Muncy and Edman. Meanwhile, they gave up just three to the Padres (who didn’t score again until the ninth) after Sasaki’s outing finished, completely flipping the script on what was shaping up to be a horror show early.
Rare is it that a six-run deficit is so easily overcome.
Rarer yet does a start like Sasaki’s prove not to be fatal.
What it means
If you want to know how the Dodgers have pulled so far away from the Padres in the National League West standings –– they now lead the division by 13 games –– Thursday was a prime example.
While the Dodgers (57-31) have been rolling for almost two months now, with 33 wins since May 13, the Padres have been going in the exact opposite direction, with their league-worst offense no longer their only issue.
During what is now a six-game losing streak, Padres pitchers have allowed a whopping 65 runs, the most over such a stretch in franchise history. The rut started with the Dodgers’ 15-run outburst at Petco Park last Saturday. Somehow, Thursday’s defeat felt even more embarrassing.
Who’s hot
A week ago, Rushing was at the lowest point of his young MLB career, mired in a 0-for-12 slump as a hitter and openly feuding with Ohtani while behind the plate for his most recent start.
Since then, however, the second-year catcher has started to turn a corner, marking the latest step in his recent turnaround with a four-hit, four-RBI performance on Thursday.
After sparking the Dodgers’ comeback with his second-inning homer, Rushing also singled in the fourth, hit his leadoff double in the fifth, lifted a sacrifice fly in the sixth, then added an RBI single in the eighth. All five balls were hit at least 99 mph. In his last five games, he is now 8-for-18.
Rushing’s next test will come on Friday, when he will be back behind the plate for Ohtani’s next start on the mound.
Roberts said he expects Rushing –– who took ownership of last week’s miscommunication with the two-way star –– to be more on the same page with the pitcher this time around.
“I think Dalton understands that is what he signed up for. The job of a catcher is to be a servant to the pitcher,” Roberts said. “So I expect that all to be resolved.”
Who’s not
As for Sasaki…
A month ago, he seemed to have found something with his stuff, combining better command with routine 100 mph fastballs.
Now, however, the 24-year-old right-hander looks even more broken than before. His fastball velocity is declining once again, averaging under 98 mph for a second-straight start (something that hadn’t previously happened since May). His command is regressing, as well, dogged on Thursday by bad misses out of the zone and a flurry of mistakes right down the middle.
Where it leaves the Japanese phenom is unclear.
But with injured rotation stars Blake Snell (who threw another bullpen session on Thursday afternoon) and Tyler Glasnow (who continues to ramp up his pitching progression) on the road to recovery, the clock is ticking for him to figure things out once again.
Up next
Ohtani (8-2, 1.58 ERA) will square off against San Diego ace Michael King (5-7, 3.55 ERA) on Friday, when the Dodgers will be looking to put more distance in the standings between themselves and the slumping Padres.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
