Dodgers' Roki Sasaki: Struggles in spring debut

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Sasaki tossed 1.1 innings against Arizona in a Cactus League game Wednesday, allowing three runs on three hits and two walks while striking out three batters.

Sasaki made his first appearance this spring and struggled mightily at the outset, allowing three hits (including two doubles) and a walk to the first five batters he faced. That netted the Diamondbacks two runs, but Sasaki was at least able to escape further damage by striking out the final two batters he faced in the frame. The right-hander returned for the second frame and struck out another batter before issuing a free pass and being pulled. While this was far from an encouraging outing for Sasaki, the Japanese hurler stated after the game that his delivery "is coming along nicely" and emphasized that, "It was an exhibition game, so I threw the pitches I wanted to work on," per Dylan Hernandez of the New York Post. Indeed, of the 36 pitches Sasaki threw in the outing, 11 were cutters -- a pitch he's working on adding to his arsenal -- and four were sinkers (a pitch he threw just twice in regular-season action as a rookie). With that said, fantasy managers probably shouldn't read too much into this rough outing, and the expectation remains that Sasaki will open the campaign in Los Angeles' rotation. Ultimately, however, he'll need to display much better results -- especially in terms of control, as he tossed only 17 of those 36 pitches for strikes Wednesday -- to remain a starter all year.