Dodgers score 12 unanswered after Roki Sasaki implosion in comeback over Padres

On “One Piece” night at Dodger Stadium, Roki Sasaki got shattered into a million.Somehow, the Dodgers found a way to put the game back together nonetheless.Six outs into a nightmarish start on Thursday, Sasaki put the Dodgers into a stunning six-run hole.Three innings later, the Dodgers had dug their way out of it, en route to scoring 12 unanswered runs in an eventual 12-7 win.Such was the sudden whiplash experienced by a season-high crowd of 54,081 –– many of them in attendance for the team’s hat and trading card giveaway for the Japanese anime show “One Piece.” For as cataclysmic as Sasaki’s 88-pitch, three-inning clunker was, the Dodgers’ hellacious comeback was just as breath-taking.First, for the ugly opening chapter.Sasaki gave up a double on his first pitch of the game, threw a wild pitch with the next, then ultimately served up a two-run homer to Manny Machado on a fastball in the heart of the zone.The disaster was just getting started.In the second, Sasaki gave up another home run to leadoff hitter Jackson Merrill on an elevated slider.

He watched Xander Bogaerts rip a double on another center-cut heater.Then, after a four-pitch walk to Fernando Tatis Jr., he hung a two-out, two-strike slider to Jake Cronenworth that also left the yard for a three-run blast.He would get four more outs without any further damage from there.

But by the time his outing was over, he had yielded seven hits (all of them either doubles or homers), issued two walks (continuing his recent command problems) and raised his season ERA to 5.40 (including a woeful 10.06 mark over his last four starts).The only silver lining: He got a no-decision.Just as soon as Sasaki’s implosion was done, the Padres’ pitching staff suffered one of their own.Dalton Rushing took San Diego starter Randy Vázquez deep for a two-run homer in the second.Max Muncy, with a double, and Kyle Tucker, with a single, drove in a couple more in the third.At that point, the Padres also turned ...