Touted Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki landed on the injured list Tuesday with right shoulder impingement, an injury similar to one he had in Japan last year.
Touted Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki landed on the injured list Tuesday because of right shoulder impingement, an injury similar to one he had in Japan last year.
He told the team his arm was sore after his last start, in which he pitched on five days’ rest for the first time in the majors. Sasaki threw four innings and gave up five runs on 61 pitches Friday at Arizona.
“What we gather is he’s felt some discomfort for the last few weeks”, manager Dave Roberts said after an 11-1 loss to the Athletics, “but given where we’re at as a pitching staff he wanted to continue to go and persevere and fight through everything until he felt that his performance was going to be compromised. That’s when he let us know where he was at physically.”
Sasaki underwent scans on Monday’s off day that revealed the problem. Roberts said there was no timeline for his return.
“I don’t think that any expectation is fair to him”, he said.
Sasaki is 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA in eight starts. He has 24 strikeouts in 34⅓ innings while holding opposing hitters to a .225 average. Sasaki was scheduled to start Thursday against the Athletics.
