Sports
How Roki Sasaki’s transformation from injured starter to closer saved the Dodgers’ season
Thirty-one days ago, Roki Sasaki arrived at Dodger Stadium, met with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes, and was presented a plan that required faith and trust.
It had been eight months since Sasaki signed with the Dodgers amid massive expectations, coming over from Japan as a 23-year-old phenom billed as possessing some of the best raw arm talent in the world.
It had been four months since his debut season took a dismal turn, landing on the injured list with a shoulder impingement following an opening month marred by poor performance and diminished stuff.
Less than two weeks earlier, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had all but written Sasaki off as a potential factor in the team’s postseason plans, after the pitcher had continued to struggle in a minor-league rehab stint.
But then, two days before his meeting with club brass, Sasaki had finally shown some signs of life, striking out eight batters during an auspicious start with triple-A Oklahoma City in which his fastball once again touched 100 mph and his trademark splitter was almost unhittable.
So, as the team began looking ahead to October, Friedman and Gomes sat Sasaki down alongside his interpreter, and presented what has proven to be a season-altering idea — for him, and his new team.
The Dodgers knew Sasaki was unlikely to feature as a starting pitcher in October, given their healthy and dominant rotation. But they saw an opportunity to use him as a reliever in the playoffs.
Only, however, if he were also open to it.
“We were just honest with him, that as things stood, the only real pathway — short of multiple injuries — was in the bullpen,” Friedman said. “But we wanted his full buy-in.”
Long-term, they promised him, he would still be a starter. In their view, he was assured, the team still saw him as a potential future ace.
But for now, they asked if he’d be open to making a temporary move to the bullpen; to taking on a relief role that they knew to him was completely foreign.
“We don’t want an answer right now,” Friedman told Sasaki. “We want you to take time and think through it.”
“We would not want to push this,” he added, “unless you’re totally on board.”
All year, the Dodgers had tried to build trust with their newest Japanese star. Now, they waited for an answer, as Sasaki went home and mulled things over alongside his agent.
As he later told the Japanese magazine Shukan Bunshun, he was initially “very hesitant” to such a switch. There was a time in middle school he’d been a closer, but during his ascent from high school to the pros, starting was all he’d ever known.
Several things, however, tipped the scales in his mind. He craved a chance to pitch in a postseason environment. He sensed an opportunity to boost a team in desperate need of relief depth. And, having finally found a comfort level with his club after a trying rookie season, he’d regained the confidence he was missing at the start of the campaign.
Thus, before the end of that day on Sept. 11, Sasaki gave the Dodgers his answer. He was in.
“Because they will let me try to start again next season,” he said, “it was a relatively easy decision to make.”
Thirty-one days — and 5 ⅓ scoreless, invaluable innings of postseason relief work from Sasaki — later, it was a moment that might have helped save the Dodgers season, and launch the rest of his MLB career.
From the day Sasaki signed with the Dodgers in January, his agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman Media Group, was quick to remind reporters that his young client was “not a finished product by any stretch.”
Turned out, he didn’t come to the majors completely healthy either.
During his final couple seasons in Japan, Sasaki’s fastball velocity had dipped while battling shoulder and oblique injuries. He couldn’t explode down the mound with his high leg kick the way he once did. He wasn’t consistently hitting 100 mph on the radar gun or dotting the strike zone with his typically pristine command.
His delivery, evaluators noticed, had begun to suffer. A throw built on generating torque from his legs to his hips and on through his shoulder and lengthy right arm, instead started to look inefficient and uncomfortable.
“I think a lot of it just came from his body changing the way he was throwing,” said Dodgers director of pitching Rob Hill, who had closely admired Sasaki during his Japanese career. “Due to kind of throwing hurt for probably a couple years.”
Once he joined the Dodgers this year, Sasaki hit rock bottom. His oblique no longer bothered him. But his shoulder remained sore and stiff. His fastball eclipsed triple-digits a couple times in his adrenaline-fueled MLB debut in Tokyo in March, but quickly plummeted upon returning stateside, averaging just 95.7 mph (and dipping all the way to 93 mph and below) over his seven subsequent starts.
When coupled with erratic control (he walked 22 batters in 34 ⅓ innings), and a flat pitch shape that made his four-seamer relatively easy to hit (lacking the vertical “ride” required to fool MLB batters long accustomed to combating big velo), opponents began teeing off. By the time Sasaki finally went on the injured list with a shoulder impingement in early May, he had a 4.72 ERA and some of the worst underlying metrics in the majors.
“We go back to the drawing board every week with him,” pitching coach Mark Prior said at the time. “We’re just trying to support him with everything we can.”
Roki Sasaki, above pitching during Game 1 of the NLDS in Philadelphia, is the first pitcher in MLB history to have his first two career saves come in the playoffs.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
At first, Sasaki seemed slow to embrace it. Not only was there a language barrier between him and his new club, but the rookie also built walls around his personality. Quiet by nature and “very particular” in temperament, as Wolfe described him this winter, Sasaki tried to keep a steadfast routine. He didn’t want to alter his pitch mix. He searched for his own ways to iron out his mechanics.
But all he found instead was frustration, leaving him looking lost in his new surroundings — and sinking even lower when lingering shoulder pain in early June further delayed his recovery timeline and required a cortisone injection.
“I think like any new player that you acquire, it takes a little while to build up trust,” Friedman said. “We knew that he was a guy that was accustomed to doing things a certain way, and we were going to embrace that, [while] at the same time forging a relationship and building trust and getting to a place where we could partner together.”
It would take time for the two sides to get there.
As Sasaki tells it, the turning point in his season happened three days before that meeting with Friedman and Gomes; on the eve of the rehab start that triggered their suggestion to move to the bullpen.
Sitting in his Oklahoma City hotel room that night, Sasaki pulled up old video of his high school days and studied a delivery that, even then, enthralled evaluators around the sport.
He was looking to the past to find answers in the present.
“I felt,” he later recounted to Shukan Bunshun, “like I was about to notice something.”
So, he kept watching.
In the three months before then, Sasaki and the Dodgers had finally started making progress.
After his initial injury setback, he formed a connection with head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache — the renowned orthopedic surgeon who not only laid out a plan for Sasaki’s recovery, but more important allayed fears of continued problems through what Sasaki described as a “very educational” process.
As Sasaki’s shoulder calmed down, he took strides in the weight room as well, working with Dodgers strength coach Travis Smith to add explosiveness and strength (especially in his lower body) to his once-scrawny 6-foot-2 frame.
“I feel better about being able to throw harder,” Sasaki said in August, as he headed out on a long-awaited rehab assignment, “especially because I’m completely pain free.”
Sasaki’s first four starts in triple-A were still a mixed bag. His velocity gradually improved, but remained mostly struck in the mid-90s. He tinkered with new pitches, including a cutter and sinker, but still couldn’t execute his trademark splitter the way he wanted.
By early September, it was enough for Roberts to cast doubt on Sasaki’s return, saying bluntly that “the performance, the stuff hasn’t been there.”
“Roki has gone through a lot this year, and he still has a ton of talent,” Roberts added. “We just want to see more.”
One week later, they finally would.
During a trip to the team’s Arizona training complex in the following days, Sasaki met with Hill and his pitching development staff, spending several hours reviewing video of his throw.
As Hill described it last month, they weren’t so much “solving this master plan” with Sasaki as they were “helping him actualize the things” he was trying to do in his delivery. They suggested tweaks to Sasaki’s lower-half mechanics. They emphasized the way he fired his hips as he launched down the mound.
Sasaki listened, and agreed on what they identified as the root causes of his struggles. One day that week, he even tested some of the changes in what was one of his hardest bullpen sessions all year.
“The day of that bullpen, it was like, ‘Holy s—,’” Friedman recalled thinking. “Things are in a really good spot.”
Sasaki, however, hadn’t convinced himself of that yet. While Hill’s evaluation “matched up with what I thought wasn’t going well,” he said in Japanese last week, “the approach [to fixing it] was a different story.”
That’s why, when Sasaki returned to Oklahoma for his next start days later, he went back over more video, and waited for a revelation.
It was then, he said, “I noticed something about the use of my lower body.”
Like a high jumper with a disjointed sequence while lifting off the ground, Sasaki felt he was still losing too much power between his leg kick and release — drawing a contrast to what he saw in his old high school motion.
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman gives the ball to pitcher Roki Sasaki after he closed out the ninth inning to preserve the win against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
So, for the rest of that night, he did dry throws in his room in search of a specific feel. All those months of work with the Dodgers’ medical team, training staff and pitching coaches suddenly tied together. For the first time all year, he felt like his old self again.
The next evening, he took the mound and hit 100 mph six times. He coupled it with extra life and movement on his knuckle-balling splitter. And he showed enough for Dodgers brass to call him back to Dodger Stadium and inquire about the bullpen.
“We think you can be really good in this role,” Friedman told him. “This is the potential pathway to help us in October.”
Of course, no one saw the level of dominance that was on the horizon. After completing his minor-league stint with two scoreless relief appearances, Sasaki rejoined the Dodgers for the final week of the regular season, showcased his improved stuff with two more scoreless innings of relief, then made a rapid ascent to de facto postseason closer — producing zero after zero when other relievers faltered around him.
He recorded the final outs of the team’s wild-card round sweep of the Cincinnati Reds. He picked up back-to-back saves in Games 1 and 2 of the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, becoming the first pitcher to record his first two career saves in the playoffs. He spun three perfect innings in the club’s Game 4 clincher on Thursday.
“One of the great all-time appearances out of the ‘pen that I can remember,” Roberts called it.
“Since coming back, coming in from the bullpen,” added teammate Tyler Glasnow, “he’s honestly one of the best pitchers I’ve ever seen.”
It has all come with a renewed level of confidence too. After that Game 4 masterclass (in which he was so locked in he didn’t even remove his glove in the dugout between innings), Sasaki said he has felt no nerves in the playoffs, nor any hesitancy about attacking the strike zone.
All those frustrations from early in the season have evaporated. His process of building trust within the organization while rediscovering the best version of himself on the mound has come suddenly, electrifyingly complete.
“The stuff being there lines up with what our expectations were,” Friedman said. “But the poise and composure, you don’t know until someone’s out there. And I would say he has more than answered the bell.”
Sports
Cedric Alexander becomes new TNA X Division champion, crushing Leon Slater’s history-making attempt
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All eyes were on the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) X Division Championship on Thursday night as Leon Slater looked to retain the title over Cedric Alexander and solidify himself as the longest-reigning X Division champion in the company’s history.
Slater knew a legacy was on the line as he looked to break a record set by Austin Aries. But he needed to pin Alexander twice in one match to retain the title. It was a steep mountain to climb as Alexander had been just as dangerous since he entered the company.
The match started off hot with Slater and Alexander trading blows to begin the match. But a quick-thinking Slater rolled up Alexander quickly for the first fall.
Cedric Alexander in the ring during NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 23, 2025. (Bradlee Rutledge/WWE)
Alexander was able to go on offense from there. He hit a nasty German suplex on the outside of the ring. He continued to work on Slater’s tweaked neck. He later hit a Lumbar Check to tie the match at 1-1.
Slater went deep into his bag. He hit an avalanche Styles Clash, which could have kept anyone else down. However, Alexander kicked out. Alexander was able to counter Slater’s high-flying abilities just for a moment and knocked him back out of the ring.
Alexander sent Slater into the steel steps, leaving him busted open. Alexander declared that he would be the “greatest” X Division champion. One brainbuster later, Alexander tried to pin Slater, but couldn’t get him down.
Alexander hit a Lumbar Check again, but Slater kicked out. Slater mustered up the last ounce of energy. A tilt-a-whirl slam set Alexander up for a swanton 450. Slater missed and Alexander hit another Lumbar Check, and then again.
Leon Slater enters the arena during NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 6, 2026. (Craig Melvin/WWE)
Alexander pinned Slater for the win, completely shocking the fans in Sacramento, California. It will be the first reign for Alexander and his first title of any kind in TNA.
Alexander is a reminder, at least for TNA, that “The System always wins.”
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Fabian Aichner appears
Fabian Aichner, formerly known as Giovanni Vinci, makes his way to the ring during WWE SmackDown at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 20, 2024. (WWE/Getty Images)
Moments before TNA went off the air, the lights went out in the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium. Emerging from the darkness was Fabian Aichner.
Aichner stared down Alexander and appeared to name himself the next challenger for the X Division Championship. Aichner, known as Giovanni Vinci for much of his run in WWE, hadn’t really been seen or heard from in months since his departure from WWE.
Aichner wrestled under his real name for a stint in WWE before he came back as Vinci in June 22. He was with WWE until 2025. He was a two-time NXT tag team champion and an Evolve champion before it became a WWE brand.
Eric Young earns future shot at TNA World Championship
Eric Young outlasted nine other men in an over-the-top battle royal and earned a shot at Mike Santana’s TNA World Championship to start the show.
The match came down to him and Elijah after the latter was able to toss members of The System out of the ring while also avoiding Frankie Kazarian trying to get back into the match following his own elimination.
Young and Elijah came to blows on the apron, knowing that as soon as their feet touch the ground, they would be eliminated. Young grabbed onto Elijah’s hair to try to hang onto the moment. Elijah broke away with Young’s back turned to him. Elijah, however, didn’t account for his wide stance.
The TNA original kicked Elijah in the groin and pushed him down to the ground. Young won the match and received a shot to win the TNA World Championship in the future.
He also made clear that Santana was next on his list of people to wipe out as he did to Joe Hendry, EC3 and Ricky Sosa in weeks past.
“Mike Santana, you’re gone next,” he declared.
Mike Santana learns his next opponent
Mike Santana stands in the ring during NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 30, 2025. (Kevin Sabitus/WWE)
Mike Santana came out to address the crowd and praised Young for his efforts to help build TNA from the ground up.
“You better be coming with something different because while you may be someone who helped build this place, when it comes to the new era of TNA on AMC, I’m the guy. I’m the man. I’m the one who holds down the fort week after week as your TNA world champion.”
While Young might have earned a title shot, Daria Rae came out and revealed to the crowd that Steve Maclin was cleared to return to action following an injury at the hands of Santana.
Maclin will get a shot at Santana’s TNA World Championship next week on “Impact.”
Santino Marella also came out during the segment after he was “suspended.” He revealed that Indi Harwell re-signed with TNA.
Lei Ying Lee, Xia Brookside rivalry heats up
Xia Brookside attends the “Freelance” screening at Regal Waterford Lakes in Orlando, Fla., on Oct. 24, 2023. (Jose Devillegas/Getty Images)
Lei Ying Lee brought the TNA Knockouts Championship back home last week with a win over Arianna Grace. She addressed the crowd before being interrupted by her former best friend, Xia Brookside.
In all black, Brookside claimed she was already in Lei’s head.
“You’re such a fraud. I’ve destroyed you mentally, I’ve destroyed you emotionally, I’ve destroyed you physically, and that title will be around my waist.”
Both competitors tossed expletives at each other before the segment was over. But Brookside made clear that she had her eyes on the title.
AJ Francis prevails over KC Navarro
A.J. Francis told Fox News Digital before the SacTown Street Fight on “Impact” that he was going to bring the pain to Navarro.
While wearing “Show Stealer” across his back, Francis did just that. Francis took some punishment from Navarro – a few shots from a baseball bat and a drop kick with a trash can.
Francis was able to turn the tide for a few moments, using the baseball bat to his advantage. But Navarro dug deep. He aligned six chairs in the ring, hoping to splash Francis through it. Instead, Francis countered and attempted an avalanche Down Payment. Somehow, Navarro countered with a cutter as both men crashed through the sea of chairs.
It looked like it could’ve been it. Navarro went for the pin, but only got a two count.
Francis turned on the heat from there. He got ahold of Navarro and hit a Down Payment through tables lined up on the outside of the ring.
He rolled Navarro back into the ring and picked up the pinfall victory.
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“Impact” match results
- Eric Young wins the 10-man battle royal to earn a shot at the TNA World Championship.
- A.J. Francis def. KC Navarro in a SacTown Street Fight.
- Rosemary and Allie def. Veronica Crawford and Mila Moore
- Cedric Alexander def. Leon Slater to win the X Division Championship.
The carriage has turned back into a pumpkin, the ballgown is once again just tattered clothing and all the horses have gone back to being mice.
The Ducks’ Cinderella run through the NHL playoffs came to an end Thursday in a 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series. And the end came well before midnight, with goals by Mitch Marner and Brett Howden in the first 8½ minutes giving Vegas a commanding lead before many in the late-arriving weeknight crowd had made it to their seats at the Honda Center.
The Golden Knights will move on to the Western Conference finals with the Colorado Avalanche next week while the Ducks will move on to summer. But it’s the team’s latest start on the offseason since 2017, the last time the Ducks made it to the second round of the playoffs. So even if the glass slipper didn’t fit this time, the Ducks have reason to celebrate.
This team, after all, wasn’t supposed to be at the ball this long. Fourteen players on its roster had never been to the postseason before; most of them had never even played for a winning team in the NHL before. But the team’s youth and inexperience proved to be a strength, not a weakness.
Ducks center Leo Carlsson passes the puck as Vegas’ Shea Theodore defends during the second period.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
They didn’t know they weren’t supposed to win in the playoffs, so they did, dispatching the Edmonton Oilers — who made the last two Stanley Cup finals — in the first round and outplaying the veteran Golden Knights, a playoff team in eight of the franchise’s nine seasons, throughout much of the second round.
Rookie Beckett Sennecke, just 20, had four goals and an assist in the six games with Vegas. Winger Cutter Gauthier, just 22, led the team with 12 points in his first trip to the playoffs. Defenseman Olen Zellwenger, also 22, had a goal and assist in his first two playoff games and Olympic gold medalist Jackson LaCombe, 25, led the team in ice time — and was third in points with 10 — in his first postseason.
That’s the core of the team going forward and the playoff experience they got this spring will be invaluable. But the fairy godmother’s spell wore off early in Game 6, which was just 62 seconds old when Vegas went ahead to stay.
Marner opened the scoring with a spectacular breakaway goal, skating on to William Karlssson’s two-line pass as he entered the offensive zone and beating LaCombe up the center of the ice to the crease. When he got there, he pulled up, turned his back to goalie Lukas Dostal, then shoved the puck just inside the right post for his seventh goal of the playoffs.
Howden doubled the lead with a shorthanded goal 7½ minutes later, finding miles of space just to the right of the goal and banging in a pass from Marner that split LaCombe and Alex Killorn. The goal was Howden’s eighth of the playoffs, temporarily giving him the NHL postseason lead, while the assist gave Marner 18 postseason points, also best in the league.
When Shea Theodore scored off a faceoff seconds into a power play late in the period, it gave the Golden Knights a 3-0 lead at the intermission with the goals coming on a power play, the penalty kill and with the teams at even strength.
Ducks left wing Alex Killorn moves the puck ahead of Vegas right wing Keegan Kolesar in the first period.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The Ducks led the NHL with 26 comeback wins during the regular season, but against the poised and patient Golden Knights the deficit was too big. The Ducks left the ice to a chorus of boos after the period, though they came back to dominate the second period, getting the only score at 12:46 when Mikael Granlund notched his fifth goal of the playoffs on a power play, lining a snap shot into the side netting from the middle the left circle.
But the Ducks would get no closer, with Vegas icing the game on two third-period goals from Pavel Dorofeyev, who had four goals in the final two games. The first came off a turnover from the Ducks’ John Carlson deep in his defensive end 2:52 into the final period and the second on a shot from a difficult angle to the right of the goal that ricocheted in off Dostal with 6:28 left in the Ducks’ season.
The two scores gave Dorofeyev nine for the playoffs, passing Howden for the league lead.
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Drake’s long-awaited album, “Iceman,” the ninth of his illustrious career, comes out Friday, but fans were given an apparent sneak peek late Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
Overnight, an apparent song from the album was leaked on social media, which is rumored to be titled “1AM in Albany,” a series of songs by Drake storytelling during specific hours of certain cities that began with “9AM in Dallas” in 2009.
The song features some thinly veiled hits at Kendrick Lamar following their feud from 2024 into last year, but fans were taken aback at some apparent shots at LeBron James.
Drake and LeBron James talk after the NBA game between the Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Lakers at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on March 18, 2022. (Cole Burston/Getty Images)
James and Drake were once very good friends, with James even taking the stage during one of Drake’s concerts years ago. However, James began to show some loyalty to Lamar during the famed rap beef that found its way to Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show performance.
“I shouldn’t even be shocked to see you in that arena, because you always made your career off of switching teams up,” Drake rapped. James went from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat, back to the Cavs to the Los Angeles Lakers and is set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Singer Drake talks to LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers during an NBA game against the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Nov. 25, 2015. (Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
CHARLES BARKLEY ADMONISHES SOCIETY FOR BEING HOMOPHOBIC IN VIRTUE-SIGNALING RANT ABOUT JASON COLLINS’ DEATH
In a double entendre, Drake also implored his fans to “please stop asking what’s going on with 23 and me. I’m a real n—-, and he’s not, it’s in my DNA,” a play on words from the website “23andMe.”
Drake and James have linked up numerous times, but if this song is legitimate, and the bars are aimed at James, those times may be long over.
LeBron James and Drake attend the Drake and LeBron James pool party in Toronto for Caribana on Aug. 5, 2017. (Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for Remy Martin)
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“Iceman” will be Drake’s first solo album since he released “For All The Dogs” in October 2023. His first album was “Thank Me Later” back in 2010, and he followed up with classics in “Take Care” in 2011 and “Nothing Was The Same” two years later.
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