Roki Sasaki got through his two innings in Game 2 without giving up an earned run, but the Dodgers hardly got the kind of clean, confident work they were counting on Sunday afternoon against the Atlanta Braves.
Dave Roberts went to Sasaki in the top of the eighth with Los Angeles trailing 3-1, hoping his 2025 postseason weapon could keep the game alive. Instead, the inning opened with trouble almost immediately.
Sasaki walked Rowdy Tellez on five pitches, then fell behind Austin Riley before hitting him on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. Suddenly, the Braves had two on and nobody out.
The pressure only kept building from there. Mike Yastrzemski laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up, and the Dodgers then intentionally walked Drake Baldwin to load the bases for Ronald Acuña Jr. Sasaki still found a way out, getting a 6-4-3 double play to escape the jam.
The ninth inning looked far more like the version the Dodgers wanted. Sasaki retired Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, and Michael Harris II in order, giving Los Angeles a shot to rally from two runs down. Max Muncy’s solo homer in the bottom of the ninth made it interesting, but the Dodgers still came up short in a 3-2 loss.
The final line shows zero earned runs, but the outing was anything but comfortable. It wasn’t the Sasaki Dodgers fans remembered from 2025, when he carried the feel of prime Eric Gagné and Kenley Jansen. This version looked closer to the one Dodgers fans saw from Edwin Díaz during the regular season - well, maybe not that bad.
Last postseason, Sasaki made nine appearances, picked up three saves, and allowed just one run on six hits across 10⅔ innings. That’s the level Roberts needs again in Game 3 and beyond if the Dodgers are going to keep their three-peat hopes alive.
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Dodgers May Be Rethinking One Crucial NLDS Move Against Chris Sale
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For a team built to punish mistakes, the challenge now is creating enough pressure when the long ball is not there. Roberts has plenty of moving parts, but the bigger question is whether the Dodgers can find the right combination to stop letting Sale dictate the game from the first inning on. The decisions around the lineup may look small on paper, yet in a tight October series they can decide whether Los Angeles is reacting or finally getting ahead of the matchup. [Read more 🡒]