Dave Roberts Defends Roki Sasaki After Turbulent Start

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts found the positives in right-hander Roki Sasaki’s start Sunday despite his early struggles. Sasaki threw five innings against the Washington Nationals in his second start of the regular season Sunday, allowing six runs on five hits and three walks. He also struck out five batters while throwing 90 pitches.

The 24-year-old allowed two home runs in the outing, one two-run shot and a three-run homer the following inning. The right-hander still came out for another inning after allowing his second round-tripper of the day, though, and shut down the Nationals before passing the baton to the bullpen. “I saw potential growth,” Roberts said after the outing, per the Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett .

“I think you could argue his last inning was his best inning that he threw the baseball. To respond from that, to get to that five-inning mark, I thought was important. ” Roberts then explained why the extra inning was so important.

“I told him afterwards — I don’t care about the line score, I care about the pitches in totality,” Roberts said, per MLB. com’s Sonja Chen . “And those ones that we want back, we’ll get those back.