Dodgers: Why didnt Dave Roberts use Roki Sasaki

Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts was attempting to play the long sport Monday night time.

Which is why, when his crew entered the ninth inning with a three-run lead in Game 2 of the National League Division Series, he gave the save alternative to Blake Treinen instead of Roki Sasaki.

If all issues had been equal, it’s probably that Roberts would have turned to Sasaki to start the inning. In just two weeks since returning from a shoulder injury and being moved to the bullpen, the transformed rookie starter has develop into the membership’s most dominant reduction option.

But, for as a lot of a revelation as the 23-year-old right-hander had been in that time — posting 4 scoreless outings with a 100-mph fastball and unhittable splitter — the crew remained conscientious about managing Sasaki’s workload, which included one look in Game 2 of the wild card sequence, then another in Game 1 of the NLDS just days prior.

Thus, with Roberts feeling assured enough in Treinen (the veteran right-hander coming off a career-worst season but also some just lately improved outings) to shield a three-run cushion that felt comparatively snug, he left Sasaki sitting in the bullpen despite the save state of affairs.

He tried to take benefit of an alternative to give his ace reliever relaxation.

“He hasn’t gone two out of three [days] much at all,” Roberts said after the sport. “So I didn’t want to just kind of preemptively put him in there. I felt good with who we had.”

That plan, of course, nearly backfired in disastrous fashion. Treinen gave up two runs without retiring a batter. Alex Vesia needed his protection to flip a wheel play on a Bryson Stott bunt to restrict the injury from there. And in the end, Sasaki entered the sport anyway to document the ultimate out.

Moving ahead, Roberts confirmed on Tuesday, Sasaki is “definitely the primary option now” for any future save conditions — the closest the crew will come to calling him their outright nearer, since they may also select to use him in high-leverage spots before the ninth.

“Obviously what Roki has done, has continued to show, has been very encouraging on a lot of fronts,” Roberts said.

The query, however, stays precisely how laborious the Dodgers can journey him the remainder of these playoffs; and how delicately they’ll have to stability the burden they place on a younger pitcher who has never before pitched in a reduction function.

“He’s not going to close every game, it’s just not feasible,” Roberts said Tuesday. “This is something he’s never done. And you’re expecting to go a few more weeks [in the postseason]. So all that stuff has to play in, that a lot of people don’t have any appreciation for.”

The deeper the Dodgers go in the playoffs, the more difficult this calculus will get.

For now, the crew’s desire could be for Sasaki to have at least in the future of relaxation before each of his outings. And while Roberts didn’t rule out utilizing him back-to-back days, he described it as “the next graduation point” for the offseason Japanese signing (who had made only eight MLB begins at the start of the season before initially getting harm and lacking the next 4 months).

“There’s no guarantee what the stuff’s going to be like [in a back-to-back sequence],” Roberts said, including that any potential usage of Saskai on consecutive days would require conversations beforehand with pitching coaches about how Sasaki seemed in pregame catch periods.

“I would love to have Roki throw every single day if he could, but that’s just not feasible,” Roberts reiterated. “Again, we have a lot of conversations, and then I make my decision.”

In other phrases, Sasaki will get the bulk of save alternatives transferring ahead. But he probably received’t be the only one to deal with such spots.