The Los Angeles Dodgers fell to 52-30 on Friday night after losing the series opener to the San Diego Padres, 7-1.
Leading the way for San Diego was former Dodgers star Walker Buehler, while Roki Sasaki turned in another shaky outing for Los Angeles.
Roki Sasaki’s Performance
Sasaki pitched four innings and took the loss, dropping to 3-5 on the season.
He allowed three earned runs, all of which came on a three-run homer by Ty France. Sasaki surrendered just three hits but walked five batters and struck out only two.
Through 72.0 innings across 14 starts this season, his ERA now sits at 4.88. His command has been one of the biggest issues early in his MLB career, and he acknowledged that postgame.
“Today’s game, I really struggled to throw strikes,” Sasaki said through his interpreter, according to MLB.com. “There’s a lot of things I need to work on, and I need to go over that. I’m not going to have it every time out, so that’s something I have to improve.
“And, also the game plan. I was able to execute some of the pitches, but some of the pitches I couldn’t, so that’s something I have to go through before next start.”
Sasaki Was Visibly Emotional in the Dugout
After manager Dave Roberts pulled him in the fifth inning and replaced him with Jack Dreyer, cameras caught Sasaki sitting in the dugout visibly emotional, clearly frustrated with how his outing unfolded.
“Roki Sasaki looking visibly upset in the Dodgers dugout after being pulled from his outing against the Padres after issuing his fifth walk of the night,” Adrian Medina posted.
Roki Sasaki looking visibly upset in the Dodgers dugout after being pulled from his outing against the Padres after issuing his fifth walk of the night. pic.twitter.com/GAgQLD4yfv
— Adrian Medina (@AdrianMedina_16) June 27, 2026
Roberts also addressed Sasaki’s struggles after the loss, but sounded optimistic about fixing the mechanical struggles his young pitcher is going through at the moment.
“Sometimes, certain pitchers, if they’re out of whack a little bit, they can’t really do what they’re accustomed to doing or wanting to do,” said Roberts. “So I think Roki is a little bit like that.
“But at the end of the day, even if you don’t feel great, you still gotta go out there and make pitches and not walk guys. That’s just the bottom line. That’s the big leagues.”
Roberts added, “I know that there’s confidence in there. But when you feel good and you don’t feel good mechanically and can’t execute pitches, yeah, then the results are walks, and you know, [0-2] homers, things like that. But yeah, I do think that we can kind of tackle the mechanic things that he’s probably looking for right now.”
Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki Gets Emotional After Being Pulled Against Padres