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Dodgers’ offense can’t break through against Jacob deGrom in loss to Rangers

April 13, 2026

Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)

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Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)

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LOS ANGELES – Sunday’s pitching matchup was an unfair comparison waiting to happen.

Roki Sasaki weaved all over the road like a student driver, allowing 10 of the 22 batters he faced to reach base (five hits, five walks) and needing 94 pitches to get through just four innings. But somehow, he avoided a crash and allowed just two runs.

Meanwhile, two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom gave up a home run to Shohei Ohtani on his first pitch of the game, then kept MLB’s most productive offense so far this season in check for six innings as the Texas Rangers salvaged the final game of the three-game series by handing the Dodgers a 5-2 defeat.

“Jacob, when he’s right, he’s one of the best in baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the loss.

The Dodgers hope opposing managers say the same about Sasaki some day.

For now, Sasaki established his brand in the first inning of this one. He gave up a single to the first batter he faced, then walked the next. But he struck out the next three, getting Corey Seager and Jake Burger on fastballs and Joc Pederson on a splitter.

There was more traffic in the second inning (a walk and a double), but the Rangers didn’t break the seal on Sasaki until Evan Carter’s leadoff home run in the third inning. A single-walk-single-walk sequence after there were two outs in the inning produced another run.

Sasaki’s best inning of an erratic afternoon might have been the fourth. He walked another batter but didn’t allow another baserunner.

“I think there are a lot of positives and also a lot of things that I need to work on and clear up,” Sasaki said through his interpreter, a typical mixed-bag postmortem from his starts. “So basically what I’m working on is, attack the zone, throw strikes and I keep moving forward.”

Sasaki was all over the Statcast map in this outing. His 94 pitches included just 53 strikes. The Rangers swung at 40 of those and missed 15 times, including five of 11 swings at the slider Sasaki has been trying to develop as his third pitch. He struck out six. But walks and working from behind far too often inflated his pitch count and limited him to four innings, leaving the bullpen stretched over the rest.

“I thought he walked a couple guys that he could’ve beat, personally. But it was good to kind of see him bounce back after walking a couple of leadoff guys and getting some swing and miss,” said catcher Dalton Rushing who has been paired with Sasaki in all three of the right-hander’s starts this season. “I don’t think it was a bad outing at all. It’s kind of the same thing. We just have to lean on really attacking hitters a little more and getting ahead. I think that changes the counts for hitters and also gets a little more chase.”

Somehow keeping things from spinning out of control was the highlight of Sasaki’s outing, Roberts said.

“I think the thing that stands out is, he limited the damage. Once he exited the game, we were still in a good position to win the game. That was important,” Roberts said. “He didn’t let it spin out of control. And then, looking at the lack of efficiency, I think that’s something that, with the stuff that he had today, the six strikeouts and the swing-and-miss and all that stuff, that sets up for going deeper in the game. So that’s something that I talked to him about, and challenging him to, when you take the baseball, we’re trying to go five innings or more. So I think that’s the next progression for him, to be consistently able to do that.

“But I do feel the growth part of it is to hang in there and make pitches when he needs to. That’s important. And he spread the walks out, I guess, as well as you could to kind of limit damage. And that’s something I was proud of, in that sense.”

Ohtani’s leadoff home run was his second in as many days, but it was not a harbinger of deGrom vulnerability. He allowed just three more hits in his six innings, striking out nine.

The Dodgers ran themselves out of their best potential scoring opportunity against deGrom. Alex Call led off the third inning with a single, and Ohtani walked with one out. With Kyle Tucker at the plate, both runners took off, but Call put on the brakes between second and third. Ohtani kept going, and Call was tagged out.

“You’ve got arguably your hottest hitter (Andy Pages) … at the plate with two outs,” Roberts said. “You just can’t get caught up in a rundown there. Can’t do it.”

Sasaki gets credit for being more adept at avoiding damage Sunday than the Dodgers’ bullpen. The Rangers made it a 3-1 lead with a run in the sixth inning when Edgardo Henriquez made a wild throw on a bunt. The Dodgers matched that on an RBI single by Tucker in the seventh, breaking a 1-for-11 stretch for him this weekend. But the Rangers pulled away with two runs in the eighth against Ben Casparius and Will Klein.

“I talked to Robert (Van Scoyoc, hitting coach) and he said there’s some things that he’s seeing a little bit,” Roberts said of Tucker who was 2 for 13 this weekend and is 5 for his past 25 with seven strikeouts. “He’s getting out of his zone, I see. And he’s not a guy that typically chases down below, but he’s chasing a lot more down below, for me.

“This is not a really a good example as far as the guy we faced today, but I think we’ve seen it enough, as far as the last week or whatever, there’s been a lot more chase down below, is what I see. I see him as a high-ball hitter, and so I guess a little bit just kind of getting him back into his hitting zone, and then cleaning up a couple of the mechanical things that Robert sees. And they’ve had conversations.”

Roberts acknowledged Tucker could be pressing to get off to a good start and live up to the big contract he signed over the winter.

“I think there’s a little bit to that,” the manager said. “Typically when guys chase, they’re trying to do a little bit too much.”

Dodgers’ offense can’t break through against Jacob deGrom in loss to Rangers Orange County Register

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Dodgers’ offense can’t break through against Jacob deGrom in loss to Rangers

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