The Los Angeles Dodgers seem to have found their closer.
With a bullpen that has been in flux all season — and seemingly getting to new levels of mistrust after a nerve-wracking postseason thus far — relief pitchers that can get in and out of high-leverage situations are hard to come by.
Luckily, rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki has emerged as not just a solid reliever for the Dodgers in the midst of an intense October, but he has proven to be the best reliever for LA this postseason.
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In four appearances this October totaling 5.1 innings, he has five strikeouts, no earned runs, no walks, one hit, and the first two saves of his MLB career. Although it is impressive to boast more career postseason saves than hits allowed, these relief opportunities are far from a walk in the park.
He closed down Game 2 of the Wild Card series against the Cincinnati Reds, he got his first-career save in a rowdy Citizens Bank Park against the Philadelphia Phillies with a runner on third, and got his second save during Game 2 of the NLDS with runners at the corners and the bullpen giving up two runs that inning before his arrival.
His most recent outing is just as miraculous, and something manager Dave Roberts called “one of the great all-time appearances out of the pen that I can remember.”
Sasaki mowed down the 96-win Phillies for three perfect innings, but those innings were the eighth, ninth, and tenth in a tied ball game, starting with the National League home run leader, and ending with the NL’s batting title holder.
This is precisely why USA Today’s Bob Nightengale claimed that Sasaki “looks like the second coming of Mariano Rivera.”
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Rivera is a Hall of Fame closer with an MLB record 652 saves and a career 2.21 ERA across 19 illustrious seasons, but a key reason as to why the New York Yankees won five championships with him on the roster is his microscopic 0.70 ERA in October.
Sasaki is proving to be everything he was promised to be and more this offseason.
For someone who had a 4.72 ERA through his first eight starts, took four and a half months off with a shoulder impingement, and not only returned as a relief pitcher but as the relief pitcher is one of the many reasons why baseball is so great, but Sasaki’s story is far from finished.
Sasaki didn’t just return to any team, but to the defending champions. He returned at the end of September when the bullpen had perhaps the most doubt surrounding them going into the postseason, made just two regular season appearances in relief, and then started his October journey.
The Dodgers have eight more wins to collect to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions in a quarter century, and determine how Sasaki’s rookie season will be remembered.
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