Should Dodgers be concerned after Roki Sasaki's first sim game had mixed results?

Roki Sasaki threw three innings in his a live sim game on Tuesday against White Sox minor leaguers, who share Camelback Ranch's facilities with the Dodgers, but LA's conspicuous silence about it on social media accounts probably clued fans into how it went. In contrast, the White Sox smugly posted a video on Twitter: top prospect Kyle Teel homering off of Sasaki as the first hitter up. Big yikes.

Teel is Chicago's No. 2 prospect after he was traded from the Red Sox as part of the Garrett Crochet deal this offseason, so there's no denying that the kid is good, but the Dodgers staff and hoard of photographers in attendance definitely didn't want to see Sasaki get shelled in his first official sim game against non-Dodgers hitters.

Through the rest of the outing, Sasaki retired the next six batters with one strikeout, walked a hitter, then gave up a double and another walk. All told, he threw 38 pitches.

The Dodgers didn't exactly have glowing reviews afterwards. Dave Roberts said, "I think that this is kind of where we expected him to be. [In] his words, he's not a finished product. We feel the same way. … Just seeing how his pitch mix plays against major league hitters, that's going to keep adding confidence for him."

Roki Sasaki gave up a homer to a top White Sox prospect in his first live sim game against non-Dodgers hitters

Of course, Sasaki getting hit almost as soon as he stepped onto the mound — and by a White Sox, at that — gave opposing fans still upset he chose the Dodgers a moment of cathartic schadenfreude.

But this shouldn't be cause for Dodgers fans to jump the gun and write Sasaki off. He's still just 23, and despite four seasons in professional baseball in Japan, MLB is a different animal. Yoshinobu Yamamoto also struggled in his first few outings last year — who can forget the disaster that was the Dodgers' first game against the Padres in Seoul? — and Sasaki is even less seasoned, so there's going to be a learning curve.

Other reports from the session said Sasaki's splitter was "as advertised," which is to say that it looked really good. We're still a few weeks away from the Tokyo Series, and he'll appear in his first Cactus League game sometime this week. Even if the Dodgers don't feel that Sasaki is ready to start a game by the Tokyo Series, he still has time to settle in, adjust, and hopefully find a rhythm ahead of LA's stateside Opening Day.