PHOENIX — Dave Roberts often refers to his bullpen hierarchy as something of a “trust tree,” with branches of relievers he can trust in leverage spots.
Lately, however, it’s been more like a shriveled-up houseplant. Barren, depleted and long-shunned from the sun.
Entering Wednesday, the Dodgers’ 4.33 bullpen ERA ranked 21st in the majors. Since the start of September, that number had climbed to a stunning 5.69 mark. Closer Tanner Scott has converted less than one-third of his save opportunities, his ERA rising to 4.91 after his latest meltdown on Tuesday. Top right-hander Blake Treinen had been the losing pitcher in each of the Dodgers’ five defeats before that, sending his ERA to a career-worst 5.55. And plenty of other factors — from injuries to underperformance to the inability of the front office to bolster the group at the trade deadline — have contributed to the late-game incompetence that has threatened to derail the Dodgers’ season.
It all left the Dodgers with only one full-time relief arm sporting an ERA under 3.00 this season — Alex Vesia, who has a 2.62 mark in 66 appearances.
It has turned the final days of the regular season into an all-out manhunt for even the slightest of trustworthy playoff options.
As Roberts put it Wednesday, he is simply looking for “guys that are gonna take the mound with conviction. That are gonna be on the attack. That are gonna throw strikes, quality strikes, and compete. And be willing to live with whatever result.”
Maybe, just maybe, Roki Sasaki can be the answer.
On Wednesday, the rookie 23-year-old right-hander was activated from the injured list after missing almost five months with a shoulder injury, came out of the bullpen for a dominant 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the seventh, and helped preserve a 5-4 Dodgers win that took them to the precipice of a National League West title — lowering their magic number to one to clinch their 12th division title in the last 13 seasons.
He looked, in Roberts’ view, “like a different person” than he was earlier this season.
“A lot more confidence,” Roberts said. “A lot more conviction.”
Sasaki’s return was not supposed to be this important. Up until a couple weeks ago, his disappointing debut season seemed likely to end with a stint in the minors.
Yet over the last 15 days, circumstances have changed. Sasaki rediscovered 100-mph life on his fastball. He excelled in two relief appearances with triple-A Oklahoma City. And suddenly, he seemed like a potentially better alternative to the slumping names that have repeatedly failed on the Dodgers’ big-league roster.
Thus, the Japanese phenom was back again, activated from the IL before Wednesday’s game as Kirby Yates, who has a 5.23 ERA this year and was slipping out of the Dodgers’ postseason plans, was placed on the IL with a hamstring strain.
“I just think [he needs to focus on] giving everything he has for an inning or two at a time, and let the performance play out,” Roberts said pregame of Sasaki. “Just go after guys, and be on the attack.”
That’s exactly what Sasaki did in his first MLB outing since May 9 on Wednesday. Following a six-inning, one-run start from Blake Snell, and protecting the kind of narrow 3-1 lead the Dodgers have so often squandered in the second half of the season, he flashed all the tools required to be a weapon out of the bullpen.
His once-hittable fastball not only averaged 98-99 mph, but was located on the edges of the strike zone and induced whiffs both times the Diamondbacks (80-78) attempted to swing at it. It accounted for both of his strikeouts (one looking, one swinging) in a 13-pitch inning.
Sasaki’s splitter also generated awkward swings and appeared to mirror his four-seamer better than it had earlier this year, when inconsistent command of both pitches left him looking overmatched in his first big-league action.
Most of all, Sasaki hardly seemed rattled by the moment, walking off the mound with a stoic glare while teammates — including Shohei Ohtani — applauded him in the dugout.
“I’m just really appreciative of all the trainers and coaching staff that I had the chance to interact with, to help me to get to where I am in terms of my health and mechanically,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I feel like they’re really in a good place and that allowed me to throw with pretty good command and really good velo.”
Sasaki’s revival began earlier this month, when he went to Arizona after four poor starts in a minor-league rehab assignment to work with the organization’s pitching development coaches.
At that point, Sasaki had lost his tantalizing velocity, hardly even threatening 100 mph since his adrenaline-fueled debut in Tokyo back in March. His command was just as shaky, averaging more than 5 ½ walks per nine innings in his first season stateside. Even his pitch mix required an examination, after his predominantly fastball/splitter arsenal was hammered in both the majors (where he had a 4.72 ERA in eight starts to begin the season) and the minors (where he had a 7.07 ERA in his first four rehab starts) by hitters who could too easily differentiate his stuff.
“Me, him and his translators went in the lab and sat down and watched video for a few hours, and just talked,” said Rob Hill, the Dodgers’ director of pitching who worked with Sasaki at the club’s Arizona facility. “It wasn’t as much solving this like, master plan or whatever. It was moreso helping him actualize the things that he was seeing.”
In Hill’s view, Sasaki’s mechanics had suffered from a shoulder injury that, even before this year, had plagued him since his final season in Japan.
While the two watched film, Hill said they found discrepancies between things Sasaki “still almost thought he was doing” in his delivery, but weren’t translating in how he actually threw the ball.
“I think a lot of it just came from his body changing, the way he was throwing due to throwing hurt for probably a couple years,” Hill said. “He knew what he wanted to do, but he couldn’t quite tap into the way to do it.”
What followed was a series of mechanical tweaks — both to Sasaki’s shoulder movement and lower-half sequence — that got the pitcher’s fastball back around 100 and his trademark splitter to more closely mirror his four-seamer when it left his hand. Sasaki also added a cutter-like slider, giving him another weapon with which to confuse hitters and induce more soft contact.
When the right-hander returned to the minors, he struck out eight batters over a solid 4 ⅔-inning, three-run start on Sept. 9. He then impressed with two scoreless appearances in relief last week, after club executives asked Sasaki to experiment in the bullpen.
“He’s been in the ‘pen for the triple-A team, and he’s been really good,” Roberts said. “So I’m looking forward to seeing it with our club.”
For Sasaki, this is all still a small sample size. One good relief outing will not make him the Dodgers closer.
But just consider the previous state of the Dodgers’ beleaguered bullpen. Clayton Kershaw has made himself available for relief appearances and could pitch in late-inning leverage spots in October. Emmet Sheehan will make a similar move from the rotation to the bullpen once the playoffs begin.
Adding Sasaki to that mix would represent a “huge boost,” Roberts said.
“If we’re expecting him to potentially pitch for us in the postseason, they’re all leverage innings,” Roberts said. “So I don’t think we’re going to run from putting him in any spot.”
