MILWAUKEE — Less than a month ago, Roki Sasaki was pitching — or more rightfully, flailing — with Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he had compiled a 6.75 ERA through five starts. The image of Sasaki as a National League Rookie of the Year candidate had long since faded — or more rightfully, imploded. The idea of Sasaki as a postseason solution for the Dodgers seemed Pollyannaish at best.
Less than two weeks ago, Jacob Misiorowski was pitching so poorly that it seemed plausible the Brewers might leave him off their playoff roster altogether. With a 6.06 ERA across August and September, Misiorowski had at least pitched himself out of Milwaukee’s NL Division Series rotation. Any possibility of him replacing Sasaki as Rookie of the Year was dead. The idea of Misiorowski as a postseason solution seemed Pollyannaish at best.
Just like that, both rookies had reestablished themselves as crucial to their teams. And while neither is going to win Rookie of the Year, each has a chance to do something better: deliver his team a National League pennant.
“We’ve got our work cut out,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Misiorowski and the Brewers’ bullpen.
“The guy at the end throwing 100 with a split? That shouldn’t be fair,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy quipped of Sasaki. “We’re going to try to petition the league and see if we can get him suspended for something.”
Murphy was, of course, kidding — preemptive gallows humor for a team that will very likely need to beat Sasaki if it wishes to advance from the NL Championship Series, which begins Monday in Milwaukee. Then again, the Dodgers could say the same about Misiorowski.
The parallels between pitchers do not end there. Both are 23 years old. Both routinely hit triple digits on the radar gun. Both also disappointed for long stretches of this season.
Sasaki’s downturn happened first. Upon breaking camp in the Dodgers’ rotation, Sasaki produced a 3.20 ERA over his first five starts before he began to fade, ultimately landing on the injured list in mid-May with a right shoulder impingement. A lengthy rest period and Minor League rehab assignment followed, keeping Sasaki sidelined until late September. When he returned, he did so as a reliever — a role that required “a little bit of a leap of faith,” according to Roberts.
Not anymore. Since returning, Sasaki has delivered 7 1/3 consecutive scoreless outings between the regular season and playoffs, serving as the Dodgers’ de facto closer.
“Because I really wasn’t able to do much during the season, I had a strong desire to contribute even just a little,” Sasaki said through an interpreter late last week. “Personally, I also wanted to gain something that would carry over into next year, and I didn’t want the season to just end without anything. So in that sense, I’m slowly starting to feel that I’m contributing, and I’m glad for that.”
Misiorowski knows the feeling. Though he never quite carried the same weight of expectation as a high-profile international free agent, Misiorowski still entered this year hyped as a 2022 second-round Draft pick who could throw 104 mph. So touted was Misiorowski that he became an NL All-Star in July after winning four of his first five Major League starts, striking out 33 batters over 25 2/3 innings.
But the second half wasn’t as kind to Misiorowski, who struggled to such an extent that, in late September, the Brewers simply stopped starting him. One middling relief outing in a meaningless game was all Milwaukee had to gauge whether Misiorowski could be effective in October, making the club’s decision to carry him on its NLDS roster a Sasaki-style leap of faith.
Misiorowski vindicated it by becoming a true fireman for the Brewers, looking very much like the pitcher everyone had long assumed he could be.
“Everything’s finally coming together,” Misiorowski said. “It’s kind of crazy that it’s happening this quick.”
“It’s funny how that environment will do that for you,” added Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook.
So it goes this time of year: two recently neglected rookies have been reborn as crucial October pieces. If the Dodgers find themselves with a ninth-inning lead in the NLCS, Roberts will likely ask Sasaki to protect it — ideally, he said, in one-inning spurts as opposed to three. If the Brewers need to glue things together in a bullpen game or otherwise, they’ll probably turn to Misiorowski for a significant chunk. They are even considering starting him at some point in the NLCS.
He’s now a crucial part of what outfielder Christian Yelich has dubbed Milwaukee’s “collection of misfit toys” — a group of pitchers who have either experienced adversity or been underappreciated or both, but who will now dictate nothing less than the future of their team.
“It’s all hands on deck,” Murphy said, “and they’re ready to do whatever.”
