LOS ANGELES — Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman sat down with Roki Sasaki in September and laid it out: he had missed a good amount of time with his right shoulder impingement. The starting rotation was in the best spot it had been all season as he was progressing towards a return. Friedman told Sasaki the pathway for him to play in October would probably be out of the bullpen, something that the 23-year-old had never done before.
“If you don’t want to do it, we understand. There’s risk in it,” Friedman remembers telling Sasaki. “But if you want to, we think there’s a real pathway for you to help us win a championship.”
Friedman didn’t want an answer at that moment, and told Sasaki to think about it. The next day, Sasaki called him back and said, “I’m in.”
Soon after that, Sasaki reported to Triple-A Oklahoma City to throw two relief outings with no guarantee of what would happen after he got back to the big leagues. But less than a month later, Sasaki shut the door on the Brewers on nine pitches, closing out a 5-1 win and a four-game sweep of the National League Championship Series to send the Dodgers back to the World Series.
“Can’t say enough about how he’s answered the bell,” Friedman said.
Every step throughout Sasaki’s transition to the bullpen this postseason has been something new for him. He finished off the Reds in the Wild Card in just his third career relief appearance after two outings in the final week of the regular season. Three days later, he got his first career save in Game 1 of the NLDS in front of a raucous crowd in Philadelphia. In Game 4 of that series, he pitched three hitless innings as the Dodgers walked off the Phillies to advance.
And on Friday night, manager Dave Roberts handed Sasaki the ball on back-to-back nights for the first time.
“In the postseason there’s a lot of things that people, players don’t ever do,” Roberts said. “But if you want to win a championship, you’ve got to be able to be willing to take chances. And, for me, I was completely confident in Roki tonight.”
Roberts’ belief in Sasaki paid off. Even with the velocity on his fastball down from the 100-plus mph he’s been reaching since returning to the mound, and despite allowing a leadoff single to begin the ninth, Sasaki delivered once again.
He got Andrew Vaughn to line out on two pitches, and then drew a groundball from Sal Frelick to get the forceout at second. One pitch later, Caleb Durbin hit another line drive directly at Andy Pages, who got under it and made the grab for the series-clinching out. Pages immediately turned to throw the ball into the pavilion seats as fireworks went off on the field and the celebration began.
Sasaki floated the possibility of pitching back to back as early as Game 2 of the NLDS. While it wasn’t needed then due to off-days in between most of the games, Sasaki made it a point to say he felt ready.
“I actually do feel pretty good about being able to throw back-to-back games,” he said at the time. “On my off-day, I threw with pretty good intensity and felt pretty good.”
Not too long ago, there was a scenario where Sasaki wasn’t in the Dodgers’ postseason plans at all. Even when they got him to Oklahoma City to get some rehab outings in as a reliever, Friedman himself wasn’t completely sold on the idea. There were too many outs in front of him, too many things that could happen.
But then, Sasaki got back on the mound.
In his first appearance out of the bullpen with the Comets on Sept. 18, Sasaki threw 16 pitches in one inning. He didn’t give up any hits and struck out two, but more importantly, his fastball reached 100 mph. His splitter was splitting. Sasaki looked like the 2023 version of himself, before the oblique and shoulder injuries.
“That’s when we were like, OK, this guy can really help,” Friedman said.
He’s done more than just help; Sasaki has emerged as one of, if not the most trusted arm in the Dodgers’ bullpen this October. His steady presence has led to Roberts referring to him as the primary option, and now that he’s seen him pitch a back-to-back, expect the reins to be loosened even further with the Dodgers four wins away from becoming the first team in a quarter century to win back-to-back World Series championships.
“I have confidence in Roki,” Roberts said. “I trust him. I believe in his talent. I believe in his mind.”
