Ratchet Sasaki takes a new step to complete the first quality start in the major leagues

Although the fastest ball speed has not yet returned to his Japanese career, Roki Sasaki still showed positive signs in his fifth major league start. In Saturday's 4-3 loss to the Rangers, the right-hand pitcher conceded two points in six innings and pitched the longest inning of his career with 78 pitches, which was expected to claim his first major league win, but Kirby Yates was blasted out by Adolis García in nine innings to kill the win.

Compared to the season average, Sasaki's ball speed dropped across the board: from 96.9mph to 94.7 (-2.2) for four-stitch speedballs, from 85.3mph to 84.4 (-0.9) for finger forks, and from 83.1mph to 81.4 (-1.7) for sliders. Even so, the 23-year-old right-hand shooter still suppressed the Rangers' line, hitting two hits and three guarantees in six innings, and sending out four strikeouts.

Sasaki started the game with back-to-back tackles on the top six hitters and received a key defensive assist from fieldfielder Andy Pages for the second in a row – last week Pachs confiscated Michael Busch's potential slam cannon; As soon as he was out in the first game, he picked up Corey Seager's Yang Chun bomb.

The streak was ended in three sets: Dustin Harris opened the game by Dustin Harris and then hit a two-point bounce by Kyle Higashioka – the ball landed right out of the reach of the left fielder Michael Conforto's gloves. But after that, Sasaki gradually got better, and 8 of the last 10 hitters were eliminated, and Garcia was tackled with a double kill in the sixth inning, ending his pitching mission.