Roki Sasaki on Thu, Oct 15, 2026

Sasaki's 99.8mph heat wasn't enough in a 0.1-inning outing

Roki Sasaki worked just 0.1 innings against Milwaukee in the NLCS on October 15, allowing two hits and one earned run with no strikeouts and no walks. Compared with his regular-season marks of a 4.49 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP, the outing ended before he could settle in. Traffic on the bases came too early, and the numbers suggest the problem was not velocity but how his pitches were used.

Start with the pitch mix. Of his 14 pitches, the splitter was thrown 8 times (57%), the four-seam fastball 5 times (36%), and the slider once. The fastball averaged 99.8 mph and landed for a strike every time, with one swing and miss, so the raw stuff was intact. The splitter is the concern: it averaged 91.2 mph but produced only a 63% strike rate and a single whiff. Normally it works as the putaway pitch, getting hitters to chase below the zone. Here it behaved more like a pitch to find the count, which is a different job. The usual pattern of setting up with the fastball and finishing with the splitter never had room to develop in such a short appearance.

The platoon splits add context. This season, right-handed batters have hit .258 against him with an .850 OPS and 11 home runs in 198 at-bats, while left-handed batters are at .231 with a .728 OPS in 268 at-bats. That is roughly a 120-point OPS gap, so lineups heavy with right-handed bats tend to be the harder assignment. His recent form is also worth noting. He threw a scoreless 1.0 inning on October 13, a scoreless 2.0 innings on October 5, and kept a string of short scoreless outings in late September. This outing breaks that run, but with appearances this brief, a single plate appearance can swing the line dramatically, so the sample deserves a discount.

Unico's takeaway: the velocity is clearly there, so next time the focus is getting ahead with the splitter for strikes and sharpening his approach against right-handed hitters.