Roki Sasaki delivers career-best start, Freddie Freeman ends game with walk-off home run

Roki Sasaki has been getting better every time he takes the mound recently, leading the Dodgers to feel more comfortable letting him pitch deeper into games.

"I believe we are approaching a stage where he is gaining more confidence," said manager Dave Roberts, "and it's well-deserved."

Given the chance to pitch deeper, Sasaki made the most of it. He threw seven shutout innings with a career-high ten strikeouts at Dodger Stadium, and then Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to give the Dodgers a 1-0 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Angels.

Sasaki got the better of Angels starter Reid Detmers in this matchup. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the ninth, when Freeman crushed a walk-off homer off former Dodger Kirby Yates, securing the series opener for Los Angeles.

Sasaki has been dominant in both of his starts against the Angels this season. Last month in Anaheim, he already turned in an impressive outing of seven innings while allowing just one run.

At 24 years and 214 days old, Roki Sasaki became the fourth youngest Japanese pitcher in MLB history to record double-digit strikeouts in a game. The only ones ahead of him are Shohei Ohtani (twice in 2018 at 23 years, 277 days and 23 years, 312 days) and Kazuhito Tadano (2004 at 24 years, 68 days).

The Dodgers are now seeing the version of Roki Sasaki that, before the 2025 season, was ready to take MLB by storm after a brief but decorated career in Japanese professional baseball.

Since adding a new splitter to his arsenal on April 25, Sasaki has posted a 3.12 ERA over seven starts. In his last two outings, he has unlocked the triple-digit velocity that was his trademark in Japan, and today his fastball reached a career-high 100.6 mph.