Dodgers Interview: Roki Sasaki on the eve of the NLDS

PHILADELPHIA — The first taste of October came fast for Roki Sasaki. Ninth inning. Four-run cushion. Dodger Stadium humming. He punched out two and closed the door. Now it is on to Philadelphia, where the volume gets turned up again. Before the series began, Sasaki talked through what that debut meant, how he built back his stuff, and why the bullpen role fits him fine right now.

“It was my first postseason experience, and I was able to go out in the ninth with a four-run lead and get the outs,” Sasaki said. “For me it was really good. I felt like I contributed to the team, and it gave me confidence. I think that can carry into the next series.”

The confidence comes from more than the radar gun. “I could throw 100, but it is not just velocity,” he said. “My control and breaking balls were where I wanted them, and that lets me go into a game with conviction.” He smiled about the advice from a certain MVP. “From Ohtani-san, I haven’t gotten many words,” he said. “Mostly he just tells me, ‘Hurry up and pitch.’”

Relief work is a new lane, and he is embracing the rhythms. “Right now this is postseason only, so in a short period I can spend a lot of time on preparation,” Sasaki said. “I can throw more in the bullpen and my body will handle it in this window. During the season you can’t do that, so preparation is the hard part for a reliever. But every game you can help the team, and there is fun in that.”

He brushed aside any big gap between October and the regular season. For him, the bigger change is role. “I didn’t feel much difference about pitching in the postseason itself,” he said. “The difference I felt was between starting during the season and relieving now. That was the main thing for me.”

Mechanically, the road back included a reset to his arm slot. “With the angle, my shoulder had an influence,” Sasaki said. “At the beginning of the year I was not really myself. Through training and learning the correct movement, now I just throw without thinking about it. I didn’t have to force it during games, so it was not that difficult.”

Year one in the majors taught him plenty away from the mound. “The schedule is very different from Japan,” he said. “Travel and everything outside the game were difficult. In games I could not show my performance and the spring ended for me like that. Before I could feel the technical level of MLB, I kind of beat myself. That is a part I haven’t fully felt yet. Now, bringing my performance to the postseason, the experience I get from here will be the biggest gain of my first year.”

There were moments in rehab when the calendar looked tight. He never hid that. “When I was leaving the team, I wanted to return in a perfect state,” Sasaki said. “I also prepared with the resolve that maybe I could not do that this year. It took time, but trainers and coaches and many people helped me, and I could raise my condition to here. I am very grateful. I want to show that as performance in the rest of the postseason and next year.”

The sixth-inning jam in Game Two belonged to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but Sasaki paid close attention to the blueprint: poise, first out, then finish. It is the same blueprint he wants to bring if called on in a loud spot in Philadelphia. “The ninth the other night was important for me,” he said. “I felt calm. I trusted my fastball and my breaking ball. Now I feel ready.”

He circled back to the simple part, the thing every reliever repeats to himself on the jog from the bullpen. “One hitter at a time,” Sasaki said. “Make the first pitch. Make the next pitch.”

He did not pretend the journey was easy. He did not make it complicated either. “I reset my mind,” he said. “I focused on one out at a time and I built up from there.”

And if the phone rings in the late innings this weekend, Dodger fans know what comes next. “I have confidence now,” Sasaki said. “I can help the team every game.”

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