After a costly series win in Pittsburgh, the Dodgers kicked off their series against the White Sox with a depleted lineup, and Roki Sasaki had arguably his worst start of the season after he imploded in the 5th inning in a 8-2 loss.
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Roki Sasaki has been on an impressive run of late, and it was clear he was battling a bit with his command early on.
He began the 1st by falling behind batters as he didn’t quite have command, and he got away with it against the first two hitters for outs. However, he fell behind Andrew Benintendi and grooved a 3-1 fastball that was crushed for a solo homer to make it 1-0 White Sox.
Benny knew ? pic.twitter.com/GFVcaHlbLS
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) June 13, 2026
Roki still didn’t have his split command in the 2nd and left one up for a single, but nothing came of that, and he worked around further singles in the 3rd and 4th (one in each inning).
One of those cut splitters that he throws sometimes (by accident?). Nasty. pic.twitter.com/DUF2hVUz66
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) June 13, 2026
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On the other end, White Sox starter Anthony Kay has struggled to miss bats this year, so thankfully he ticked his fastball up to 98 MPH just for the Dodgers.
He used that bump to work around a lead-off single in the 1st with a pair of strikeouts. However, he lost control a bit in the 2nd and the Dodgers took advantage to some extent. Kyle Tucker led things off with a walk and Miguel Rojas followed with a double that could’ve scored Tucker when Sam Antonacci had a bobble, but Dino Ebel had already decided on the stop sign. Fortunately it wasn’t costly as Max Muncy got hit to load the bases and Santiago Espinal singled to plate two runs for a 2-1 Dodgers lead.
Santiago for the lead! pic.twitter.com/rWzid1JPZJ
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 13, 2026
That was when the frustration came into play, as Chuckie Robinson laid down a bunt to advance both runners and Alex Call got hit by a pitch to re-load the bases, but then Andy Pages struck out and Freddie Freeman flipped a flyout to kill that rally. Sigh.
In the 3rd, they managed just a two-out single as they continued to flail at a guy who mostly hasn’t been a strikeout guy.
The Dodgers went down quickly in the 4th and did the same in the 5th, as Kay ended up with a career-high in strikeouts. Thankfully they did make him work in the one inning, so that was it for him.
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Roki had been having issues with his secondaries but got away with it … until the 5th.
Here’s how that went: walk, single, single for a run that arguably should’ve been a double play but got under Freddie Freeman’s glove, double for a run, strikeout, walk, and walk for another run.
That was it for Roki, who just lost it: 4.1 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 3 BB, 4 K, 91 Pitches.
It was still 4-2 at that point, but Blake Treinen threw gas onto the fire, giving up a bloop single for two more, getting a pop-out, and the giving up a triple for two more again to make it 8-2 White Sox before that ended.
WHAT A FUN 5TH INNING ? pic.twitter.com/sCEF3C9ahM
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) June 13, 2026
Oof?
Edgardo Henriquez faced the minimum in the 6th after picking off a single, then Jonathan Hernandez entered for the 7th and got around a two-out walk. He ended up walking the bases loaded in the 8th, but didn’t give up further damage.
Against the White Sox pen, the lineup didn’t do anything. A clean 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th, lol.
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44-26, down to a mere 102-win pace.
The series will continue tomorrow a few hours earlier for the weekend at 10:10 AM HT/1:10 PM PT/4:10 PM ET. It’ll be Yoshinobu Yamamoto facing off against Sean Burke.
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