Orel Hershiser Reveals What Dodgers' Roki Sasaki Tried, Failed, to Correct

Los Angeles Dodgers right-handed pitcher Roki Sasaki's 2026 season has played to a now-familiar pattern. His latest start offered a perfect example.

Against the San Francisco Giants on Monday, Sasaki allowed only one run through the first five innings on a Rafael Devers home run. In the sixth inning, the Giants rallied for three consecutive hits before Dave Roberts went to the bullpen. Two runs scored; both were charged to Sasaki's ledger.

In seven starts this season, Sasaki has yet to allow a run in the first inning. In the second inning, he's allowed only two runs (2.57 ERA). From the third through sixth innings, his ERA is 9.15 (19.2 innnings, 20 earned runs).

Speaking to Katie Woo of The Athletic, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman offered an overview of the problems Sasaki has faced in his second MLB season.

“The feedback he gets from major-league hitters is really important,” Friedman said. “This is a really talented pitcher who, when delivery and throw and everything is synced up, can really spot a fastball. We haven’t seen that as much here and now. Some of that’s the ball. Some of it may be giving hitters too much credit. Some of it may be the delivery, but those are all things that him facing the best of the best, helps us get there.”

The solution remains elusive, but color analyst Orel Hershiser offered some insight during the third inning of Monday's game broadcast on SportsNet LA.

According to Hershiser, the key lies in taking Sasaki's mechanics from the stretch into every plate appearance, even when there is no runner on base.

"I really like when he wants to be quicker because there’s a man over there who might steal because he has less flex in his back leg," Hershiser said of Sasaki. "He just lifts and goes. For me, a lot of his control issues are that he has so many great moving parts but he doesn’t move them always consistently when there’s no runner on, but he’s much tighter and stronger when there’s a man on first. And his spray pattern, I think, is much better."

Sasaki's surface-level results back up this observation. He's walked more batters, struck out fewer and allowed a higher opponents' slugging percentage with the bases empty compared to when he pitches out of a stretch with runners on base.

Play-by-play man Joe Davis, stating the obvious, followed up Hershiser's observation with one of his own.

"Seems like an obvious change that he should do that all the time," Davis said.

Hershiser, who's one to know, said the Dodgers' coaching staff has already made the suggestion.

"It’s almost like a hitter that’s seeking power compared to a pitcher that’s seeking power," Hershiser said. "And it’s like no, seek location and the power will be there. And I know the pitching coaches are working on this with him, and I know he is receptive to their ideas, but it is really hard to take it into competition when you think, ‘More is better, harder is better.’"

"It’s not always that way," Hershiser continued. "The pitching coaches have told him, ‘We love this delivery when somebody’s on.’ But for some reason when nobody’s on, he can’t get through his mind that all that extra doesn’t help. But you know what, he’s open to it, he’s coachable, and the league is telling him to listen."

Daily tjStuff+ Starters Leaders
2026-05-11
Min. 50 Pitches

1) Roki Sasaki - 108
2) George Kirby - 106
3) Kevin Gausman - 105 pic.twitter.com/96leyBtYXk
— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) May 12, 2026

Sasaki's issues, then, might have less to do with his unfamiliarity with MLB and the difficulty of facing the best hitters on the planet, and more to do with his age. Hershiser's observation suggests Sasaki merely needs time to take a learnable skill and train his body to act on it.

Like a lot of 24-year-old pitchers, Sasaki has already mastered how to manipulate a baseball to great effect. Now, the key might just be getting him to learn how to take something off and still be effective.

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