Straight Talk: Sasaki talks to media after poor outing in last spring tune-up
John E. Gibson
Host · Writer
“Straight Talk" is a regular feature in which The Sporting Tribune’s John E. Gibson offers a full translation of media availability with Dodgers’ Japanese superstars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. The job of interpreters in the heat of the moment is difficult without the ability to write down questions and answers and re-hear responses for proper context. That’s where John comes in to help.
John currently works as a Japanese-English interpreter and covered pro baseball in Japan for about 20 years. His experience includes stints at The Orange County Register, The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, The Redlands Daily Facts, The Yomiuri Shimbun’s English newspaper in Tokyo and The Epoch Times.
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki spoke to the media after his two-inning stint against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night, when the right-hander allowed five earned runs on six walks and two hit batters to see his spring ERA hit 15.58. He allowed no hits and struck out a pair, and the game ended in a 7-7 deadlock.
Q: When you look at your outing today — yes, there were the walks — what were you finding just the way your stuff was playing this evening?
Sasaki: It was my final spring training game today, so I went into it with the mindset that it was a real game, and I wanted to make it a point to pitch the way I’m supposed to.
Q: Do you feel like you found that?
Sasaki: As far as today goes, as the results show, it was poor, so I would say no.
Q: Why do you think you’re still having so much trouble finding the strike zone consistently?
Sasaki: In my bullpen before the game, I had control, and then the game came around, things were happening with my throwing that have happened a lot this spring when you look at it. In the past, I’ve been able to make the adjustments during the game. But today, I don’t think I was able to find it.
Q: Do you think you can fix that by next week?
Sasaki: It doesn’t matter if I can fix or not fix it, I have to go out next week and just go right at batters. So I have to reflect on things and find a way to do what I can do (to help the team).
Q: Has this been a challenging camp for you, just working through these mechanics and trying to lock things in?
Sasaki: Well, the good aspects have been good, but looking at the pitching itself, I haven’t been able to get it done. So the things I’ve received, the things I’ve done up to now – the positive things have been positive. But the things I’m going to be asked to do when we get into the season, I’m not getting it done right now. So I think I’m just going to have to find a way.
Q: How confident are you that you have success as a starting pitcher in the big league when the season starts next week?
Sasaki: The spring season and the regular season are different, so I just want to reset things. The issues I had in spring training, I just need to correct them one by one. There’s no other way to move forward. I need to forget about all the numbers from the spring season because I have a new season coming up. I think it was a good thing to have the negatives happen in the spring, and the only thing I can do is look at the season as a new start and go out there and get it done.
Q: Do you think that mental toughness plays a role in overthinking, vs. the bullpen to the mound, like maybe overthinking and that what causes problems with your mechanics?
Sasaki: Yes, that plays a role, and there are various other factors as well. But what changed is my mechanics. I have to know exactly what changed when I get a batter out, and then I’ll be able to repeat the performance. If I can do that, I won’t have to blame it on mental weakness, I think I just need to understand how to batters, I can solve the problems.
