Roki Sasaki’s Secret Weapon: How the Dodgers’ Unexpected Closer is Shutting Down the Postseason with Unstoppable Precision
Most people assumed he wasn’t eligible for the playoff roster, though, because he hadn’t made his MLB debut until after the Aug. 31 deadline. But because he was on the club’s 40-man roster, the Angels were able to select him as an injury replacement and add him to the postseason roster. It was controversial at the time because that loophole hadn’t really been used and wasn’t general public knowledge.
The Angels leaned heavily on the youngster, and he responded. He made 11 playoff appearances — nine of them were scoreless and seven were more than one inning. In Game 2 of the World Series, he pitched three perfect innings, holding the line as his Angels rallied from a 9-8 deficit to beat the San Francisco Giants 11-10. In Game 7, Rodriguez — K-Rod, as he’d become known — struck out three Giants in a scoreless eighth inning, a day after pitching 2.2 innings in the Angels’ Game 6 victory.



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