"The difficulty of pitching in relief is, I'm sure in the regular season, just the way that I'm warming up, it takes a while to warm up,"
"In a playoff format, I think I'm able to do that because I do have the stamina as a starting pitcher. But over the course of a longer season, I don't think it's a sustainable way for me to prepare to pitch each postseason game as a reliever."
"The fun part about relieving is the opportunity to be able to contribute to the game, to the team every day."
Roki Sasaki signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and struggled to a 4.72 ERA across eight starts before a shoulder impingement sidelined him for over four months. Upon a late-September return, a rotation spot was no longer available following rehab that increased his fastball velocity and command, prompting a move to the bullpen. Sasaki produced two strong relief innings in September, closed the Wild Card series with a hitless ninth, and recorded a save in Game 1 of the NLDS. Relief pitching presents warm-up challenges during the regular season; the playoff format utilizes starting-pitcher stamina short-term, but that approach appears unsustainable for a full season. Relieving offers frequent opportunities to contribute to the team.
Read at Dodgers Nation
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]