SAN DIEGO – The Dodgers can’t drop out of the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes just yet.

As much as Dave Roberts tried to make the case that Friday night was an aberration, the Dodgers can’t possibly know what they have in Roki Sasaki.

Not after Bad Roki suddenly resurfaced in a 7-1 loss to the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.

Sasaki pitched the way he did at the start of the season.

His velocity was down.

He had no idea where the ball was going.

He gave up three runs over four innings, walking five batters in the process.

The question now is whether Sasaki has really come to understand his delivery as well as he claims. Because if he doesn’t, and if he was overly reliant on feel over the last month, there is a real danger he could revert to his early-season form.

“I don’t think that will happen,” Sasaki said in Japanese.

Sasaki will have to identify and address whatever went wrong between now and Thursday, when he is expected to pitch against the Padres again, this time at Dodger Stadium. 

“In my mind, to some degree, I have an idea of what I have to do with my delivery,” he said. “It’s a matter of whether I can replicate that. That’s what everyone battles every time. The quality of that was low today and I think that was the reason (I didn’t pitch well).”

Sasaki had a couple of promising starts in mid-May, but his season really entered a different phase in a game against the Philadelphia Phillies at the end of that month.

That was the night Sasaki rediscovered his fastball, touching 100 mph for the first time this season.

“This was the game in which I was able to pitch most like me,” Sasaki said that night.

Sasaki averaged 98.5 mph with his fastball against the Phillies, 1.5 mph faster than his season average up to that point.

He said he was surprised by how much his velocity jumped, which, in retrospect, raises questions about how conscientious he was about what he was doing.

Sasaki’s velocity remained consistent over the three starts that followed, including a June 12 game in which he gave up a season-worst seven runs. But Sasaki still had his moments in that start against the Chicago White Sox. He allowed only one run in the first four innings, and his problem wasn’t with his fastball. His problem was with the command of his secondary pitches. He still looked like himself.

Which is why his performance on Friday night was so alarming.

Sasaki didn’t look anything like a dominant power pitcher.

In each of his previous two starts, he threw 17 pitches that were clocked at 99 mph or faster. Against the Padres, he reached that threshold just five times.

His average fastball velocity was 97.7 mph. In his previous four starts, that number ranged from 98.3 to 98.8 mph.

“There weren’t many times I was able to throw comfortably,” Sasaki said.

In addition to not being able to throw as hard, Sasaki was all over the place with his fastball. 

His delivery is complicated, with many body parts moving in multiple directions at the same time. He has said his ability to perform his delivery drastically affects both his velocity and command. When his delivery is right, the two elements improve simultaneously. On a night like Friday, when his delivery isn’t right, they worsen at the same time.

Sasaki’s loss of form was noticeable from the start. The first inning included a 10-pitch walk by Samad Taylor.

Sasaki started the bottom of the second inning by walking Manny Machado in another 10-pitch at-bat. He followed that up by walking Gavin Sheets.

With one out, Sasaki threw two quick strikes to Ty France, only to lob a slider over the middle of the plate that was launched over the left-field wall for a three-run home run.

Sasaki’s postgame self-evaluation was unconvincing, as the right-hander blamed his difficulties on unspecific problems with his lower body.

Did he really know what was wrong?

For his part, Roberts said he didn’t think Sasaki wouldn’t go back to looking as lost as he was early in the season.

“I do think that we unlocked something,” Roberts said.

Or did Sasaki just catch lightning in a bottle? If that’s what happened, and the lightning in the bottle has escaped, Sasaki’s road to stardom is about to take an extended detour.

---

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters