Detroit Tigers’ Jack Flaherty, left, hugs Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman after receiving his World Series championship ring prior to a baseball game Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Detroit Tigers’ Jack Flaherty walks back to the dugout after receiving his World S eries championship ring prior to a baseball game against the Dodgers Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki throws to the plate during the first inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman, right, scores after hitting a solo home run as Detroit Tigers catcher Jake Rogers kneels at the plate during the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen gestures after the Dodgers defeated the Detroit Tigers in a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenta Maeda reacts after walking Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani during the seventh inning of a baseball game Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman rounds second after hitting a solo home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Dodgers’ Will Smith has seeds thrown at him after hitting a solo home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani rounds third before scoring on a double by Teoscar Hernández during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani is congratulated by teammates in the dugout after scoring on a double by Teoscar Hernández during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Show Caption1 of 10Detroit Tigers’ Jack Flaherty, left, hugs Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman after receiving his World Series championship ring prior to a baseball game Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Expand LOS ANGELES — Maybe when he has exhausted all the firsts – first major-league start in Tokyo, first start in Dodger Stadium – Roki Sasaki will settle down. So far, though, the moments have been too big for the young right-hander – and the strike zone not big enough. Sasaki retired just five of the 12 batters he faced, getting pulled in the second inning after demonstrating poor command for the second time in two big-league starts. But Sasaki signed with the MLB team most able to absorb his developmental misadventures. The Dodgers’ bullpen retired 21 of 24 batters in his wake and the offense went to work, handing the Detroit Tigers a 7-3 defeat Saturday night. The Dodgers have started the season 5-0 for the first time since 1981 when they won their first six games. “Dodger Stadium’s intimidating. There’s four decks here. It’s loud. It’s fun. It takes a lot to be able to perform here,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said of Sasaki’s rocky home debut. “We have full confidence in Roki. He’ll settle in. He’ll start pitching better. He’ll start dominating the (strike) zone. He’ll be really good for us.” Sasaki’s nerves were evident – he called it “a good nervousness” in Japanese – when he made his MLB debut in front of a packed Tokyo Dome. He lasted just three innings, walked five of 12 batters there as well and hit the strike zone with less than half of his 56 pitches. Saturday was worse. Sasaki needed 41 pitches just to get through the first inning. He walked two, including Trey Sweeney with the bases loaded, and gave up another run when Manuel Margot dribbled a hit halfway up the third base line, also with the bases loaded. The 41 pitches were the most thrown in an inning by a Dodgers pitcher since Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw 43 in his disastrous MLB debut in Seoul last year. “Overall, I didn’t feel that I had a good feel for my pitches,” Sasaki said through an interpreter. “My slider felt pretty good. But my fastball-split – velo-wise, command-wise – wasn’t there. “I felt like I was able to get into the game pretty well without many nerves. I just didn’t feel I had the stuff today.” When Sasaki walked two more batters in the second inning, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts ended his night early. “Roki, throughout his entire career, he’s been a command guy. He doesn’t walk guys. He’s filled the strike zone,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think that, right now where he’s at, there’s some new surroundings. He wants to impress. He wants to pitch well. He’s going up there competing. And right now it’s just not syncing up. “From the outset, I’ve always said we believe that this is a process. He’s a young player who is [making his] first delve into Major League Baseball. We’re going to keep getting better and go back to work, and get ready for his start in Philadelphia. And so right now for me, I’m not going to overthink it and just continue to support him and make sure he’s ready to go his next start.” In Tokyo, Sasaki averaged 98 mph on his fastball and touched 101 mph. That velocity wasn’t evident against the Tigers. He averaged just 96.1 mph on his 33 fastballs, topping out at 96.9 mph. Only 21 of them found the strike zone, and the Tigers swung-and-missed at just two. The drop in velocity might have been part of the reason the Tigers fouled off 13 pitches against Sasaki, including five by Sweeney during a 10-pitch at-bat that ended with his bases-loaded walk. Sasaki’s much-hyped splitter has been no help. In his two starts, he has thrown 30 of them, but big-league hitters haven’t been fooled. The Cubs and Tigers swung at just six of the 15 and missed only twice. “It’s probably one of the best splitters I’ve ever caught. It’s nasty,” Smith said. “I think it just comes back to controlling the zone. Just falling behind in counts, not winning those battles, getting ahead early and really keeping them off balance. They’re able to just check off it. “It’s definitely a really, really good pitch. Really good fastball, really good slider. But it’s the big leagues. It’s hard, and he’s going to learn. He’s going to get better. He’s going to be really, really good for us.” So far, he hasn’t been. Sasaki has thrown 117 pitches in his big-league career. Only 57 found the strike zone, leading to 10 walks in just 4 ⅔ innings. “I don’t expect myself to be able to fix everything in a short period of time,” Sasaki said, alluding to “mechanical things” he has been trying to address. “That being said, I am going to be pitching every week so I do expect as a major-league pitcher to be able to put up quality outings. But it’s something I expect myself to work on throughout.” Sasaki didn’t hand the ball to Roberts when the Dodgers manager came out to the mound to take him out of the game and then headed down the tunnel to the clubhouse once he reached the dugout. Roberts called him back for “a quick chat,” aware that Sasaki was reacting emotionally to the second consecutive disappointing performance. “He wants to perform,” Roberts said. “All he’s known is success. And so I think that he’s certainly upset, disappointed. But you got to be a pro and get back to work. It’s not the first time that a starting pitcher has had two bad outings. … This is all the learning curve.” Despite his struggles, the Tigers could push across just those two first-inning runs against Sasaki, then went silent against the Dodgers’ bullpen. Jack Dreyer, Ben Casparius and Anthony Banda combined to retire the first 13 batters in order after Sasaki left the scene. Freddie Freeman homered in the first inning, and Michael Conforto doubled in a run in the second inning to match the Tigers’ two-run headstart. After Tigers manager A.J. Hinch intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani with two outs and a runner on third in the fifth inning, Teoscar Hernandez drove in two runs with a double that gave the Dodgers the lead. Will Smith added a solo home run in the sixth and Tommy Edman his third of the season in the seventh off former Dodger Kenta Maeda. Freeman added an RBI double. “To celebrate like we did (Thursday and Friday) – we even had a ring ceremony today for our staff with players giving rings to a lot of staff members. So we were still doing ceremony stuff today,” Freeman said. “To go out there and play a good baseball game, get the sweep in front of our fans while we celebrate last year, I think that was just a great job by all of us this weekend.” Related Articles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani throws bullpen session, still ‘a ways away’ as pitcher Alexander: ‘Fight For Glory’ revisits Dodgers’ 2024 World Series run Mookie Betts’ walk-off homer in 10th keeps Dodgers undefeated Dodgers get their World Series rings – ‘final piece’ of 2024 celebration Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw ready to take next step in recovery, face hitters ...read more read less