Dodgers squander Roki Sasaki's most promising to date with embarrassing record loss

The Dodgers made easy work of the Cubs during the Tokyo Series, besting Chicago by a margin of three runs for each game, and they took their first game from them at Dodger Stadium on Friday behind a fantastic shutout start for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who went six innings and struck out nine batters.

It was what the Dodgers needed after coming off of a rough east coast roadtrip that slapped them with two series losses against the Phillies and Nationals and revealed cracks in the Dodgers' highly-touted, seemingly impenetrable armor.

But their second game against the Cubs on Saturday night told a far different story. Roki Sasaki, who remained unqualified to pick up his first win of the year after never pushing four innings in his first three starts, pitched five innings and only gave up one run (a solo homer to former Dodger Michael Busch) while striking out three, showing much-needed improvements in his command.

The defense even came through for him. He got into trouble in the top of the third when he gave up a walk, single, and another walk to load the bases. He got to two outs without issue, but then Busch sent a fastball all the way to the warning track. It looked like it might get out, but then Andy Pages, whose poor defense got him benched last week, leapt to make an incredible catch, rob the Cubs of a grand slam, and end the inning.

Sasaki exited after five innings and just one run allowed, but no run support from the Dodgers yet. And then things only got worse from there.

Dodgers bullpen (and Miguel Rojas) allows 16 unanswered runs to Cubs in worst home shutout loss in franchise history

Rookie Ben Casparius, who'd looked solid in his previous outings, replaced Sasaki in the sixth and gave up an RBI single to another former Dodger in Justin Turner but got out of the inning without further damage. However, in he immediately gave up a solo homer to Carson Kelly in the seventh, and three more runs scored before Casparius even recorded his first out. Another scored on a sac fly before the Dodgers mercifully replaced Casparius with Luis García.

García was no better. He gave up a leadoff walk, a double, then a two-run single, and then an two-run homer to Miguel Amaya before the Dodgers decided to wave the white flag, calling on Miguel Rojas to carry them through the rest of the game. The Cubs continued to bully the Dodgers even with a position player in, and five more runs scored on Rojas' watch. Busch even hit for the cycle to rub more salt in the wounds.

Rojas tried to give his teammates a reason to smile during his two-inning appearance, mimicking Sasaki, Yamamoto, Landon Knack, and Clayton Kershaw's deliveries on the mound, but it was a cold comfort.

The Dodgers' offense, meanwhile, got five hits but no runs off of Cubs starter Ben Brown, were no-hit through two more innings by Julian Merryweather and Caleb Thielbar, and then taken down with just a single for Chris Taylor in the bottom of the ninth. It slapped LA with their worst shutout loss at home in franchise history, and it was probably the worst possible way the Dodgers could've proven that they can bleed.