Wednesday, August 26, 2026 — one ripped patch of skin in Atlanta, and the Dodgers’ postseason math changes.
Roki Sasaki was pitching the best baseball of his young career. Then, with one out in the fourth inning at Truist Park, the skin on the middle finger of his throwing hand tore open. By the end of the night he was headed for the 15-day injured list, the Dodgers had lost a walk-off, and the shape of their October pitching staff had shifted again.
What Happened
Sasaki had allowed just one run through three innings — a first-inning homer to Matt Olson — before the fourth unraveled quickly. A leadoff walk, a single, a sacrifice fly and a ground-rule double later, he was out of the game. His line: four runs on six hits and two walks over 3⅓ innings.
Sasaki said he felt nothing coming before the first hitter of the fourth, then described the skin simply ripping off and the situation getting worse from there. He tried to pitch through it at first, he said, because the skin was still partially intact, but the slider was compromised.
Dave Roberts called it a significant blister that “came out of nowhere” and said there was no way to avoid an IL placement given its severity. The move became official Thursday, with right-hander Seth Halvorsen recalled to fill the roster spot. Sasaki can’t return before September 11.
The Timing Is the Worst Part
Blisters are rarely career-altering. This one may still alter a season.
Sasaki entered the night with a 2.31 ERA and a 24 percent strikeout rate over six starts since the All-Star break — arguably the most consistent stretch he has produced in the majors. It was his first four-run outing since July 2. He has made 23 starts, tied with Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the club lead, and ranks third on the staff in innings.
In other words, he was pitching his way into the October conversation. A September 11 return leaves barely two weeks of regular season to rebuild a pitch count — and blister recoveries are notoriously unpredictable. If the skin doesn’t toughen on schedule, “at least September 11” can easily become late September.
The Rotation Without Him
Eric Lauer, acquired from Toronto in May and pushed to the bullpen when Tyler Glasnow returned, slides back into the rotation. Roberts said the club would cover Thursday with relievers before settling on Lauer’s first start.
Behind that, the Dodgers are finally approaching the rotation they built for this moment: Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal — the deadline blockbuster who faces his former Tigers teammates in Detroit this weekend — Blake Snell, back since August 11, and Glasnow, activated Tuesday. Shohei Ohtani was also expected to rejoin the rotation within the week as he rebuilds after two months away from the mound.
That is a remarkable amount of high-end pitching. It is also a remarkable amount of high-end pitching with recent injury history. Snell made one start before mid-August. Glasnow was activated hours before Sasaki got hurt. Every name on that list comes with an asterisk.
Where Sasaki Fits in October
Here is the honest read: if Yamamoto, Skubal, Snell and Glasnow are all healthy in October, there is no fifth starter in a postseason series. Sasaki was likely bound for a playoff bullpen role regardless.
That doesn’t make the injury irrelevant — it makes it relevant in a different way. A healthy Sasaki in relief is a weapon: an upper-90s fastball and a wipeout splitter in short bursts. Los Angeles needs exactly that, because bullpen depth was already the club’s biggest concern heading into a second straight October. The pitcher who gave up the walk-off on Wednesday, Tanner Scott, fell to 1-5.
The blister doesn’t threaten Sasaki’s arm. It threatens his runway. Converting a starter to a reliever takes reps, and the Dodgers just lost two-plus weeks of them.
The Standings Cost
The game itself mattered too. Pinch-hitter Ha-Seong Kim — batting .066 entering the night and without a hit since returning from the injured list — delivered the winning run in the ninth after Lane Thomas’ two-out double off Scott. The Dodgers stranded 11 runners, including the bases loaded in both the seventh and eighth.
The loss ended a season-high six-game winning streak and handed Atlanta the season series. Los Angeles sits at 80-53, two games behind Milwaukee for the NL’s top seed and two games ahead of the 78-55 Braves for the second bye. The Dodgers have now lost the season series to both clubs, meaning any tie goes against them.
For a team that has spent August losing tiebreakers and pitchers in equal measure, that is the real headline. The Dodgers don’t just need to win in September — they need to win outright.
The Read
On its own, a blister is a two-week story. In context, it is one more reminder that the Dodgers’ October plan rests on a staff of brilliant, fragile arms. Sasaki was the young, healthy, ascending piece of that puzzle. Now he becomes one more question mark — and Los Angeles has a lot of those to answer in a very short September.
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