Roki Sasaki allowed five hits and one unearned run with one walk and five strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings in a no-decision against the Yankees on Friday.
This was a very encouraging start to the second half for Sasaki. First off, he was pumping gas. His fastball averaged a shade over 100 mph and in total, he threw 21 pitches in triple digits and topped out at 102 mph. In his career to date before this start, he’d never topped 101 mph and had only thrown 15 pitches at or above 100 mph. His command was also much better than usual. There were a few more fastballs that caught corners and his splitter was consistently diving low and below the plate. Similarly, his slider was abnormally lethal. When Sasaki has his whole repertoire working like he did here, he’s a scary pitcher. The problem is that when something goes wrong, he struggles to get over that hump. That’s how he’s wound up with a 4.98 ERA through 86 2/3 innings on the season with this kind of stuff. The roller coaster will continue next Friday against the Mets.
