LOS ANGELES -- As spring bloomed across Los Angeles in late March, fans stampeded their way up the hill to Dodger Stadium to get a glimpse of him. Roki Sasaki, the once-in-a-lifetime Japanese baseball pitching prospect, who turned down generational wealth to come to America early to pitch, was going to make his Dodgers home debut against the Tigers.
He had a fastball that resembled a rocket launcher. His splitter was the stuff of legends, careening towards a batter before dropping like a meteor into the dirt, leaving flailing millionaires in its wake. On a team with arguably the greatest baseball player of all time in Shohei Ohtani and the best Japanese pitcher of the era in Yoshinobu Yamaoto, Sasaki brought an excitement where his ceiling almost felt limitless.
A few hours later, the same crowd that had packed in early to see him began to disperse to beat the traffic. He didn't even go a full two innings, giving up three walks and four hits before mercifully being lifted by veteran manager Dave Roberts. Photos and videos of him slumped in the Dodgers' dugout began spreading like wildfire online, pundits and former players picking apart every expression on his face.
What gives him the right to look so upset?
Are those tears?
Is he crying? There's no crying in baseball.
Those images stained Sasaki's first few months as a Dodger. After attempting to push through a nagging injury from the start of the season and struggling to find any consistency, the Dodgers shut him down and put him on the injury reserve. When he came back later that summer to have rehab starts for the Oklahoma City Comets, the fanfare from March had left.
He pitched to half-seated crowds in the plains, struggling to find the speed on his fastball, which once tired out mitts like mallets on a drum. The breaking balls were wild and were offering up easy walks. As the Dodgers fought tooth and nail for a National League West crown and to get into the playoffs, Sasaki was lost at sea, trying to find salvation.
On Thursday, that same Sasaki who six months ago slumped over the rails in the dugout to try and hide his tears, was yelling into the heavens. While the rest of the Dodgers bullpen collapsed at the finish line, Sasaki was given a final shot in 2025 to contribute, a change in his pitching form and a renewed sense of confidence, leading him to a comeback story often only seen in movies.
Sasaki became the first Japanese pitcher in MLB history to throw three clean innings in relief during the postseason. Over the course of the four-game series, the three games in which he came into the game to pitch all ended in victories for the Dodgers. The Phillies couldn't find any answer to his pitch sequences, one second throwing a 101 MPH fastball on the corner and the next throwing a pitch that looked the same before disappearing in front of them.
In a series where Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw sacrificed himself to the Phillies offense and 2025 postseason hero Blake Treinen was a ticking time bomb before blowing a lead, the Dodgers didn't want Sasaki to succeed -- they needed him to.
After a season where every day he woke up to speculation of whether he made a mistake coming to America, or if he had it even in him to continue moving forward, there were no more questions after Thursday. He didn't hide from one of the deadliest lineups in baseball, going after Kyle Schwarber with his heart on his sleeve, daring the 56 home run monster to either beat him or go down swinging. During a stretch where walks have terrorized the Dodgers' bullpen and the fear of throwing down the middle has seen balls get smacked out of the ballpark, the Japanese rookie stared fear in the eye and conquered it.
When he finished his three innings of work and stepped off the mound without surrendering a single hit, the fans serenaded him with their own cries to the unsung hero. Sasaki's glimpses of satisfaction quickly turned back into the stoic face he usually keeps, slipping back into the dugout to watch if his team could bring in the run necessary to win the game.
The series ended when Orion Kerkering, a pitcher only a few months older than Sasaki, performed the first error to end a series in MLB history. He bobbled a ball softly hit to him with the bases loaded, panicking and chucking the ball to an exasperated catcher yelling for him to throw to first as his world came crashing down all around him.
Sasaki would leap from the shadows and onto the field, the clear MVP for the team during the divisional round. Behind him, Kerkering, doubled over, a similar look to Sasaki's back in March, pained, reeling like a knocked-out boxer not knowing where reality started and ended.
The Dodgers and Sasaki will continue their quest to become the first back-to-back baseball champions in over two decades. The tears of a spring past now turned into an autumn of champagned-soaked roars.
