The Dodgers host the Cubs in Game 2 of their three-game series Saturday night in Los Angeles, and the dodger score may again be shaped less by Roki Sasaki’s uneven start than by the rest of a rotation that has kept the club on track. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET on FOX.
Sasaki has put up a 6.11 ERA and 1.87 WHIP in 2026, numbers that would normally send a young starter out of the rotation and toward the bullpen. Instead, the Dodgers are saying he will stay in the mix for now, even though his walk rate is 14.1% and the control problems that have followed him from last year have not gone away.
That patience makes sense only because the rest of the staff has been so strong. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow have combined for a 1.91 ERA with 91 strikeouts and 18 walks this year, while Justin Wrobleski has gone 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA as the Dodgers’ sixth starter. Even with Sasaki’s numbers, Los Angeles still has the best starters’ ERA and WHIP in the National League.
Sasaki’s stuff has not disappeared. His fastball still lives in the upper 90s, but his command has not matched the velocity. In 2025, he logged 54 regular-season innings and another 10.2 postseason innings, then worked out of the bullpen long enough to strike out six batters and walk five. The pattern has carried into this season, only now it is unfolding in the rotation instead of as a relief experiment.
The Dodgers have also been getting production from elsewhere. Andy Pages took a leap last summer and produced nearly a four-win season for Los Angeles, and he is off to a scorching start in 2026. Blake Snell is expected back sometime next month, which would give the club yet another arm to lean on as it tries to manage innings across a staff that already looks deep enough to absorb mistakes.
That depth is the real story here. The Dodgers are succeeding even while one of their young starters works through his issues, and they are choosing to let Sasaki do it in the big leagues rather than pushing him to a different role right away. River Ryan is also on the shelf with a hamstring issue, and the club is being careful with his innings after he missed last year recovering from Tommy John surgery. For now, Los Angeles can afford patience. The question is whether that patience turns Sasaki’s upper-90s arm into a reliable starter before the rest of the rotation has to carry even more of the load.