PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Just in time to make a run at a second consecutive World Series title, the Los Angeles Dodgers might have found their closer.
The Dodgers already knew what they had in Japanese ace Shohei Ohtani. Los Angeles turned to rookie countryman Roki Sasaki to fill the role of shutdown reliever.
A little slice of playoff history was a perfect way to win Game 1 of the NL Division Series.
Saturday night and Sasaki worked a scoreless ninth in over the Philadelphia Phillies, making them the first Japanese-born starter and reliever to earn a win and a save in the same postseason game.
The 23-year-old Sasaki pitched in only 10 games this season — eight starts — because of a right shoulder impingement that cost him a chunk of time on the injured list.
With a playoff bullpen that already includes starters Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw, the heralded Sasaki has deftly made the switch to a relief role.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has been willing to let it fly with Sasaki early in these playoffs. The right-hander topped 100 mph with two strikeouts in one blazing inning to help Los Angeles close out the Reds in the Wild Card Series.
He did allow a runner to reach third base in the ninth inning Saturday but retired Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott on a foul popup to seal the win.
Not bad for a new reliever.
“The difficulty of pitching in relief is, I’m sure in the regular season, just the way that I’m warming up, it takes a while to warm up,” Sasaki said ahead of Game 1. “In a playoff format, I think I’m able to do that because I do have the stamina as a starting pitcher. But over the course of a longer season, I don’t think it’s a sustainable way for me to prepare to pitch each postseason game as a reliever.”
The Dodgers went without a designated closer during the regular season.
So they’re giving an October tryout to Sasaki, who signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in January, receiving a $6.5 million signing bonus because he was under age 25 and subject to international signing bonus pool rules. Sasaki spent the last four seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan.
Expectations were high for a pitcher who’s been a dominant force at every other stop in his fast-rising career. But the shoulder injury slowed him down and he didn’t come off the 60-day injured list until Sept. 24. He made his first career relief appearance against Arizona.
The Dodgers knew it would take time to build trust with Sasaki before he became a legitimate option in the ninth.
“It takes time to build a relationship. It takes time to create that trust,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Saturday. “And then you compound that with some shoulder soreness, and I think all of it kind of led to this process where we ended up in a really good spot. But it takes some time.”
It seems there could be more save opportunities to come as the Dodgers try to repeat as World Series champions.
“The biggest and most important thing was getting him back feeling right. Once that happened, then it was, OK, let’s attack the delivery and try to get that back in place,” Friedman said. “It took a little while, but I think once we saw that click is where it was like, OK, this is a very viable option to be a really talented pitcher who can help us get really important outs.”
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