Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts talked about Aki Sasaki’s role in the ‘ NL Championship Series game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Sasaki took the postseason by storm, pitching 5.1 scoreless innings in his first four postseason appearances. The are starting to rely on him in high-leverage situations, even taking him out after three innings against the Philadelphia Phillies in the National LDS.
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But Roberts doesn’t want to let him go for more than one inning if possible.
“In a perfect world, one inning. Because on the other side, there’s two innings, certainly three innings, right?” Roberts said. “But this certainly helped stabilize the pen with leverage. Obviously, our staff has been through that.”
“But I think you saw some good things last week with our guys, the guys that came out of the pen, and certainly Loki was a big contributor to that.”
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Sasaki recorded his first two saves in MLB against the Phillies on the road and has become a dependable arm for the this postseason. Since returning at the end of the season, he has appeared in a variety of games and has excelled each time.
“He’s ready for anything we need him to do,” Roberts said. “So I haven’t talked to him. I’ve talked to him – I talk pretty often – but whatever it takes for him, he’ll be ready. So I’m not worried about back-to-backs.”
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The begin their series against the Brewers on Monday and will look to Blake Snell to get another quality start on their journey to defending their World Series title. Game 1 begins Monday at 5:08 PM PT.
Photo credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
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