Phillies struggle against Roki Sasaki, baserunning costly in loss to Dodgers
Facing Roki Sasaki was already a challenge. Hitting the Japanese phenom proved to be even more difficult for a Phillies offense that went as cold as the dipping temperature at Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies could only muster three hits against Sasaki in a 3-1 loss to the Dodgers Saturday, four total for the afternoon. Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner had consecutive hits off Sasaki to start the game, and appeared to have the Dodgers pitcher on the ropes in his third start of the young season.
Instead, the Phillies could only muster one more hit off Sasaki in his four-plus innings of work.
"He threw more strikes than he did the first two times he pitched," said Phillies manager Rob Thomson. "He got us out of the zone a few times, more often than we have up to this point."
Sasaki threw 68 pitches, but only 41 went for strikes. Only 33 of those pitches were in the strike zone, as Sasaki used a mix of his fastball and split finger. He threw the fastball 35 times and the split finger 28, confusing the Phillies' bats as they could only muster two walks against him.
"His (splitter) kind of feels like a screwball in a sense," said Bryson Stott. "It's a good pitch and he was throwing it for a strike today so it made it tough...He had it working today."
The Phillies finally seemed able to have a breakthrough against Sasaki in the bottom of the fifth, as J.T. Realmuto started the inning with a leadoff walk then Bryson Stott followed with a single to have runners on first and second base with no outs. Sasaki was pulled immediately after the Stott single, but the Phillies failed to score the tying run.
Trailing 2-1 with one out in the inning, Kyle Schwarber hit a scorching line drive to right field that should have scored Realmuto from third. Stott was caught running back to first base as Teoscar Hernández threw him out for the double play to end the inning. The Phillies didn't have a serious threat to score after that.
"I was stealing...It was one of those things," Stott said. "I think the only ball I get doubled up on was that line drive. Teoscar has a good arm. If he bounces the throw, I'm safe...Everything that had to go perfect, went perfect."
The Phillies went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and only had four runners left on base. The inability to score made life difficult for starting pitcher Aaron Nola, who allowed two home runs in the loss. Nola threw six innings and allowed three runs, but the offense has just generated one run in his 11.1 innings this season.
Regardless, Nola has allowed four home runs through his first two starts, taking the loss in both appearances.
"Three of those [home runs] have been [on the] first pitch," Nola said. "They jumped me [on the] first pitch, and I just need to throw better pitches."
The surprising part of the loss was the Phillies inability to take pitches out of the zone, as they entered Saturday with the lowest chase rate (24.7%) in baseball, while ranking fourth in walk rate (11.5%).
Could Saturday's lack of offensive output be an outlier in a long season? Through the first eight games, the signs point as such.
