Phillies' offense cold vs. Sasaki and Dodgers' bullpen to even weekend series

Phillies' offense cold vs. Sasaki and Dodgers' bullpen to even weekend series originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Phillies were prepared this winter to make a presentation to Roki Sasaki. They would have loved the opportunity but never got the sense they were in the mix and that was confirmed in January when the 23-year-old right-hander shortened his list to a handful of teams.

Sasaki ended up with the Dodgers, surprising nobody in the baseball world. While the Padres and Blue Jays were also involved in the pursuit, the Dodgers were viewed as the massive favorite all along given their winning ways, rich history with Japanese players and the recent additions of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

The Phillies, had they gotten the chance to meet with Sasaki, would have taken a different approach. They have a very short history with Japanese players and an even shorter one with Japanese pitchers. They weren’t going to pretend Philadelphia was the same as Los Angeles. They would have tried instead to show Sasaki that if he signed here, he wouldn’t just be a heralded acquisition, he’d be the first player like him signed in this major sports market, a potential standard bearer for future generations of Japanese players.

Perhaps someday the Phillies will be a major player in the market for a top guy coming over from NPB but that day hasn’t yet arrived. Their first look at Yamamoto came on Friday night and their first look at Sasaki came Saturday afternoon on an overcast, chilly day at Citizens Bank Park.

Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner opened the bottom of the first with back-to-back singles and Turner stole to quickly put runners on second and third with nobody out, but from there, Sasaki showed why all of MLB wanted him. He struck out Bryce Harper on a back-foot breaking ball that was never a strike and induced two groundballs to limit the Phillies to a run.

Harper’s strikeout began a stretch of Sasaki retiring 12 of 13 Phillies but the right-hander was pulled after four-plus innings when J.T. Realmuto walked and Bryson Stott singled to open the bottom of the fifth. The Phillies had a prime opportunity to tie the game or take the lead into the middle innings.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts turned to lefty reliever Anthony Banda, who popped up Brandon Marsh. With runners on the corners, Schwarber then roped a line drive to right field but had the misfortune of hitting it too hard. It was right at Teoscar Hernandez who was able to double Stott off of first base to end the inning. Stott was stealing on the play and was unable to race back to the bag in time. Had he not been doubled off, Realmuto would have scored the tying run via sacrifice fly.

The Phillies went 1-for-13 with a walk against the Dodgers’ bullpen and lost, 3-1. Roberts has four different lefties at his disposal — Banda, Alex Vesia, Tanner Scott and Jack Dreyer — and three of them pitched Saturday. Neither Harper nor Schwarber faced a right-handed reliever. The Dodgers challenge you in every way, including this one. It will make matching up difficult this weekend and six months from now.

Aaron Nola kept the Phillies in the game but took his second loss after being taken deep twice more. All eight runs Nola has allowed have come via four home runs. In fact, all 13 runs the Phillies’ rotation has allowed this season have come via home runs.

Nola always seems to pay for his mistakes. He’s surrendered 36 home runs in his last 36 starts, including playoffs. This has always been a theme for him but Nola’s four-seam fastball velocity the last four seasons has decreased from 93.1 mph to 92.9 to 92.6 to 91.7. Every little bit you lose hurts and reduces wiggle room. The hope is that it ticks up as the weather warms.

Both home runs Nola allowed last Sunday at Nationals Park were on low-90s fastballs. Kiké Hernandez’ two-run shot Saturday was on a hanging curveball. Michael Conforto’s solo homer in the sixth inning was on a middle-middle cutter that barely moved.

Yet it still was not a disastrous outing, another example of Nola’s starts usually not being as bad as they seem. Home runs hurt and they stand out. But Nola also very infrequently allows three or four straight singles, which hurt equally and sometimes more. For about 95% of starting pitchers, allowing three runs over six innings to the Dodgers is a job well done.

Nola likely won’t look it at that way, though, and it can’t feel great being 0-2 on a team that is 6-2.

Both games have been tightly contested in a series that has lived up to the hype. The Phillies look to make it two out of three on Sunday afternoon as Cristopher Sanchez opposes right-hander Tyler Glasnow, another tough customer.