Roki Sasaki shows improvement, but Dodgers bats go silent in loss to Guardians

At the start of Monday night, the biggest concern around the Dodgers was focused squarely on Roki Sasaki.

By the end of it, the questions had shifted to their suddenly sluggish offense.

In a 4-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians at Dodger Stadium, Sasaki pitched surprisingly well, allowing just one run and walking only two batters in four-plus innings of solid work –– a stark reversal from the 14.50 ERA he posted in a poor spring training marred by a total lack of consistent command.

Instead, it was the Dodgers’ lineup that had the biggest problems, stumbling to a third-straight disappointing performance following its eight-run outburst on Opening Day.

Early on, they had no answers for young Guardians left-hander Parker Messick, who went six scoreless innings in what was only his eighth career start. With a funky left-handed delivery and unpredictable six-pitch arsenal, he not only struck out five batters, but also allowed just two hard-hit balls. And even one of those resulted in an inning-ending double-play.

By the time Messick was done, the Guardians (3-2) had built a four-run lead, and turned things over to their traditionally stout bullpen. The Dodgers didn’t score until the ninth, by which point their two-run rally was too little, too late.

“I thought they pitched us well tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said. “(There were) a couple at-’em balls that turned into double plays I felt could have changed the inning or the game.”

Alas, over their last three games, the Dodgers (3-1) have now totaled only 10 runs and 19 hits. They’ve struck out 17 times in that span, and drawn only six walks (including none on Monday).

It’s a small sample, of course –– especially for a club that was presented a team-wide Silver Slugger Award pregame for leading the National League in scoring in 2025.

But it has raised a few opening-week worries, nonetheless –– raising some uncomfortable similarities to the second-half and postseason slumps the team battled down the stretch last year.

What it means

The Dodgers might have the most talented roster in the majors. But that doesn’t mean they can get away with unsound fundamentals.

Monday was a reminder of that, with the team making a series of uncharacteristic mistakes.

They had two on and no outs in the third inning with Shohei Ohtani at the plate, yet came up empty after Miguel Rojas was picked off at second, Ohtani lined out chasing what would’ve been ball four and Kyle Tucker went down swinging to retire the side.

They struggled to control the running game with backup catcher Dalton Rushing behind the plate, allowing the Guardians to successfully steal a base on all three of their attempts.

And in a three-run seventh inning that allowed the Guardians to put the game away, reliever Justin Wrobleski committed several costly miscues: Failing to cleanly field a bunt to load the bases, losing Rhys Hoskins in an 0-2 count to walk in a run with two outs in the inning, then giving up a two-run double to Daniel Schneemann that put the score out of reach.

Who’s hot

Against all the odds, at least following his disastrous spring performance, how about Sasaki?

His fastball command was significantly improved, helping him throw strikes on 45 of 78 pitches even with a few wild misses mixed in. His newly added cutter gave him another weapon, accounting for two of his four strikeouts. And while he didn’t execute his trademark splitter as crisply as usual, it remained a largely unhittable pitch, generating a whiff on three of five swings.

Granted, the Guardians –– the American League’s lowest-scoring offense last year –– let him off the hook a few times, both by chasing outside the zone repeatedly and failing to punish a few mistake pitches in it.

However, the Dodgers will happily take what Sasaki gave them Monday; an outing good enough to keep them in the game early, and save the bullpen from being overworked too severely in the season’s opening week.

Who’s not

Right now, just about the entire top half of the Dodgers’ lineup (outside of Will Smith, who didn’t start Monday).

Ohtani snapped a hitless streak that extended back to his first at-bat of the season by leading the game off with a bloop single to left. After that, however, he didn’t reach base again, dropping his early batting average to .167.

Tucker and Mookie Betts also went 1-for-4, leaving them hitting just .200 through the first four games of the season.

Teoscar Hernández snapped a 10 at-bat hitless streak with a single in the seventh inning –– staying alive after originally having a called third strike overturned on an ABS challenge, one of his two successful appeals in the game –– but was also quiet otherwise, finishing the night with a .143 average.

And Freddie Freeman had a 0-for-4 performance that sunk his average to .188. 

To this point, those five now have the worst opening-week hitting numbers of all the Dodgers’ regular starters.

Roberts acknowledged some surprise about the slow starts his superstar core has gotten off to, especially after the strong springs all of them produced. But, he spun it as a positive in the big picture.

“For me, the takeaway is we’re 3-1 and the guys that we expect to swing the bats aren’t swinging the bats right now,” he said. “So that’s a good thing. They’ll hit.”

It just hasn’t happened yet.

Up next

Ohtani will make his season pitching debut on Tuesday, when the Dodgers and Guardians continue their three-game series. Despite a delayed spring pitching progression while hitting for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic, Ohtani should be built up to go six innings. The Guardians will counter with right-hander Tanner Bibee, who was 12-11 with a 4.24 ERA last year and gave up three runs in five innings in his first start of this season last week.  

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