Roki Sasaki's first strikeout vs. Cubs provides Dodgers rookie with unique MLB moment

It's hard to manufacture big moments in baseball, but MLB set themselves up for success when they put the Dodgers, who have three of the biggest stars to ever come out of Japan, in Tokyo to start their season. Anything Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, or Roki Sasaki did was always going to be under a microscope, but that increased exponentially just because of the setting.

Yamamoto, in his start in the series opener, pitched five great innings of one-run baseball en route to a Dodgers win, but the bigger story was the guy set up to follow him in the finale.

Sasaki has looked dialed in through seven innings of spring ball; he's given up just three hits and zero runs while striking out seven. His fastball, which was a point of concern for him during his transition, was sitting at 98 MPH, and the splitter looked just as devastating as promised.

During the finale in Tokyo, he was quick to get his bearings when he induced a first out on Ian Happ in the form of a fly out (on a 100 MPH fastball), and then another headliner of the series came to the plate. Fellow countryman Seiya Suzuki worked Sasaki to a 3-2 count, taking advantage of some spotty control, before throwing a beautiful dotted fastball to the inside corner (99.3 MPH) to wrack up his first major league strikeout.

Roki Sasaki notches first strikeout as a Dodger against Seiya Suzuki in their home country in poetic start to MLB career

It's hard to think of a more poetic outcome for a much-hyped Japanese pitcher, pitching in his home country in his debut. Suzuki was the only Cub who put up a decent at-bat against Sasaki in that first inning; Sasaki kept runners off base when Kyle Tucker jumped on a second-pitch, center-cut fastball but flew out to center to end the inning.

The Dodgers also gave Sasaki some run support early on with some help from more spotty Cubs defense. In the top of the second with runners on second and third and no outs, catcher Carson Kelly let a ball get by him to allow Will Smith to score, then Kiké Hernández tacked on another with a sacrifice fly. Tommy Edman gave the club their first home run of the season with a solo shot off of Justin Steele in the top of the third.

Through two innings, Sasaki doesn't look perfect but is certainly still confusing Cubs and cutting through their lineup quickly. If anyone watching was hoping for a bad start so they could dunk on the Dodgers, they're going to have to keep waiting for that.