On Tuesday night, Roki Sasaki made his spring training debut at Camelback Ranch, making three innings without conceding points, delivering five strikeouts, hitting only two hits and throwing one free throw. Ronshi Sasaki came to the board behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who lost two points in four games from the start.

Even though it's just a spring training game, it's a harbinger of the upcoming Tokyo Series — with Yamamoto and Ronki Sasaki expected to serve as the opening and second starting pitchers for the Dodgers vs. Cubs on March 18-19, respectively.

Ronshi Sasaki admits that he is still growing, and the baseball world has had the first opportunity to observe his progress since joining the Dodgers.

"He's nowhere near his peak," head coach Dave Roberts said before the game, "and that just says a lot about his potential and his future." Everybody knows that, but with his talent, his bar is already high – to be a great major league starting pitcher. ”

Even so, Ronshi Sasaki was still the center of attention. Here are the highlights of his Cactus League debut:

Ball speed performance
Ronshi Sasaki's speedball average has dropped from 99 mph in 2023 to 97 mph in 2024. When meeting with the team in the offseason, he asked them to find out the cause of the drop in ball speed and develop a plan for improvement.

Ronshi Sasaki's ball speed stats were first revealed on Tuesday: a 99.2mph four-seam speedball with Noelvi Marte hitting a guerrilla roll and Mookie Betts completing the assassination.

Langhi Sasaki's four-stitch speedball averaged 98 mph, the knuckle 85.8 mph and the slideball 83.3 mph.

Ball combinations
Another big topic around Rangki Sasaki this spring is whether a combination of speedball and knuckle is enough, and whether another reliable ball is needed. He also throws sliders, but it's still improving.

In this game, Ronshi Sasaki mainly threw four-seam fastballs and knuckle balls, mixing only 3 sliders. He threw 46 balls, 26 good balls, and got the hitter to swing eight times, seven of which came from the finger cross.