Dodgers insider tries to diagnose Roki Sasaki's struggles and it starts with one pitch

Roki Sasaki came into his second start of the season looking to build on a promising season debut. He pitched four innings against the Guardians and gave up just one run on four hits and two walks. His fastball topped out at 99.5 MPH. Although his command was still spotty, he had some success with his new slider.

His start against the Nationals slowly devolved into the disaster Dodgers fans have come to expect from him.

He was scoreless through two innings, then gave up a walk and a go-ahead two-run homer in the third. In the fourth, with two outs and a man on second, he got unlucky. A grounder from Keibert Ruiz. which should've gotten the Dodgers out of the inning, hit first base and caromed into shallow right field to score the runner. Sasaki gave up another single, and then a three-run homer to James Wood.

The Dodgers came from behind to win, but everyone knows what LA's offense is capable of. The real story here is, once again, Sasaki.

Dylan Hernandez of the California Post has some theories as to the cause of his decline from prized international free agent to rotation liability, and it centers on the forkball, once his signature pitch. "What Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called improvement looked more like an identity crisis," Hernandez writes.

Dylan Hernandez identifies Roki Sasaki's lost feel for his forkball the root of his issues for Dodgers

He points out that Sasaki threw the forkball just once during his start in Washington, and it was the pitch that ended up in the middle of the plate for James Wood to send out of the park.

"Sasaki's improved fastball command came at the expense of velocity, which dropped from an average of 97.6 mph in his last start to 96.6 mph," Hernandez argues. "Sasaki has refuted the idea that the arm action required to throw his slider has negatively affected his forkball, but the truth is that he's never thrown both pitches well at the same time."

Dalton Rushing, who has caught both of Sasaki's starts so far, admitted that the forkball was "inconsistent," while Dave Roberts pointed to the grounder that bounced off of the bag. He just got unlucky.

Sure, he got unlucky that time. But we wouldn't call dealing up a 85.3 MPH meatball to a power threat on two strikes unlucky.

There's little left to say about Sasaki's future, and Roberts just confirmed what Dodgers fans already know: he has a very long leash. We might be in for a lot more of this.