LOS ANGELES — L.A. loves Roki.
With a stint in relief for the ages, a new Dodgers hero emerged Thursday.
With a perfect eighth, ninth and 10th inning in Thursday’s 2-1 National League Division Series-clinching Game 4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, the kid came through for his new city in its time of need.
With “one of the great all-time appearances out of the ’pen,” as Manager Dave Roberts billed it, the Dodgers have confirmation that they’ve hit on someone special – and good luck to the Chicago Cubs or Milwaukee Brewers to hitting him when the NL Championship Series begins Monday.
Roki Sasaki plugged the hole in the heart of the Dodgers’ World Series defense by shoring up a bullpen in poor shape.
The concept of leaning hard on most of the regular relievers has been a non-starter of late, so the Dodgers have been turning to non-starting starters instead; Emmet Sheehan, Thursday’s starter Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw and, yes, Sasaki, all have been called on to provide relief.
None of them has been more impressive than the 23-year-old right-handed rookie from Rikuzentakata, Japan.
In Thursday’s tense 11-inning defensive duel – “an instant classic,” Roberts correctly called it – Sasaki flooded the zone with strikes. He dealt movement and heat, confounding hitters with splitters in the 80s and fastballs that touched 100 miles per hour.
Sasaki said afterward, through an interpreter, he was “relieved” to get through those three frames, even though he also said he didn’t feel any nerves – which is how it looked.
Confident with the pressure peaking at Dodger Stadium, just as he had been when he earned saves in Games 1 and 2 in Philadelphia, where the raucous Philadelphia fans didn’t bother him, he joked, because he couldn’t even understand them. “I don’t understand English that well,” he had said. “So I don’t know what they were saying, and I didn’t mind it.”
With this unflappable version of Sasaki in the bullpen, the Dodgers have found their closer for at least the rest of the postseason, the missing piece as they strive to become the first team in 24 years to win consecutive World Series titles.
Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani might have gone hitless for the third time in four games – suddenly more No-Sho than Sho-Time – but credit the Dodgers’ biggest Japanese star with a key assist. Remember reports soon after Sasaki signed that Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto took Sasaki to dinner to help sell him on the Dodgers? Connected on that one.
“I can’t speak enough to his growth and his contribution to this club,” Roberts said of Sasaki. “We’re starting to see something really special in him, and that’s why he was courted so hard in the offseason. But what he’s done now on the biggest of stages, he’s just scratching the surface. Couldn’t be more proud of him.”
How it started: With Sasaki, baseball’s top rookie recruit having elected to join Ohtani in L.A. and promptly getting off to a difficult start. Contrary to popular belief, there is crying in baseball, because we saw Sasaki appearing to tear up in the dugout back on March 29 after failing to make it out of second inning of the Dodgers’ victory over the Detroit Tigers.
After that game, Roberts told reporters: “[Sasaki] wants to perform. All he’s known is success. And so I think that he’s certainly upset, disappointed. But you’ve got to be a pro and get back to work. … This is all the learning curve.”
How it’s going: A smile in that same dugout. Well-earned following that rocky takeoff, those first eight shaky starts, a right shoulder impingement that landed him on the injured list and the muted minor league results that followed before, finally, the mechanical mechanical overhaul that’s unleashed this monster.
“Just felt like my fastball velo was back to where it used to be,” Sasaki said Thursday night. “And the command of the fastball was where I wanted it to be as well … I do really feel confident to be able to attack in zone.”
And with that, a smile, satisfaction, and an excited embrace from Roberts.
And the requisite champagne shower.
Said Roberts, speaking on behalf of every Angeleno wearing fall blue: “I just felt so happy for him.”