fastball

The ending overshadowed an otherwise positive day from the 23-year-old Sasaki — who saw his fastball velocity suffer a noticeable drop on Saturday but took another step forward in his major league development nonetheless.

His fastball didn’t have its usual life, sitting a tick lower than normal at 95 mph.

Then, with Barnes holding his catcher’s mitt low in the zone, Miller fired a fastball that stayed up and over the plate.

Sasaki established his four-seam fastball early, then leaned on his devastating splitter and functional slider as his pitch count rose and he faced batters a third time.

As reluctant as manager Dave Roberts was to compare Yamamoto to another Japanese pitcher, he said Yamamoto reminded him of Hideo Nomo because of his reliance on his fastball and splitter.