Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman revealed how the Dodgers fixed right-handed pitcher Roki Sasaki’s mechanics after his injury early in the season.
Sasaki made just eight starts before landing on the injured list, and didn’t have the best performances before landing on IL. He had a 4.72 ERA and had struck out just 24 batters through 35.1 innings. Further concern over the rookie grew after Sasaki threw a bullpen at Dodger Stadium and showcased a mid-90s fastball, rather than the 100 mph he showed earlier in the season.
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“We didn’t try to push it too early. We knew that he was a guy that was accustomed to doing things a certain way and we were going to embrace that,” Friedman said. “At the same time, forging a relationship and building trust and getting to a place where we could partner together and not pushing it prematurely.
“His delivery had gotten out of whack. The compensation for the oblique injury (during his 2024 season in Japan) and then obviously it led to some shoulder soreness. So just getting him feeling right and then syncing up his body again was really important and he was all-in obviously on doing that. It’s just how to get from A to B. Connor McGuiness, Mark Prior, Rob Hill have done an unbelievable job with him and the way he worked coming back made for a really devastating combo in terms of getting him back to the point of what we saw tonight (in WCS Game 2).”
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Sasaki returned towards the end of the regular season, and has looked like a completely different man coming out of the bullpen. He made two appearances before the end of the regular season, keeping two scoreless innings while striking out four batters. He came into Game 2 of the Wild Card series against the Cincinnati Reds as well, keeping a scoreless inning with two strikeouts.
The Dodgers, who have had their fair share of bullpen struggles over the past few weeks, will likely continue to look to Sasaki in these high-leverage situations, and will hope he can continue to produce the same results. The NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies begins Saturday at 3:38 p.m. PT.
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
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