Roki Sasaki enjoyed one of his better starts of the season in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the New York Yankees on Friday.
The 24-year-old allowed only one unearned run on five hits in 5.2 innings of work. He threw 21 pitches at 100 mph or more, which broke Bobby Miller’s record of 20 by a Dodgers pitcher in the Statcast era (since 2008), according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.
It was a second consecutive encouraging outing for Sasaki, who previously held the Colorado Rockies to three runs over six innings on July 8. That came after the Dodgers worked with Sasaki to correct his pitch-tipping issues.
But rather than find a permanent fix with his mechanics, the team came up with a temporary solution by increasing the size of Sasaki’s glove, as reported by Ayako Oikawa:
ドジャースのプライアー投手コーチに佐々木朗希投手のグラブについて聞いたところ、「ティッピング（球種がばれる癖）を隠すために大きくした」とのことでした。
癖そのものを修正するより、まずはグラブで隠した方が早いという判断。…
— Ayako Oikawa/ 及川彩子 (@AyakoOikawa) July 20, 2026
While the Dodgers haven’t fixed how Sasaki is tipping his pitches yet, they are hopeful the larger glove will make it more difficult for opposing players to pick up potential signs. So far, so good as Sasaki has allowed only four runs (three earned) over his last 11.2 innings.
The right-hander is 3-5 with a 4.98 ERA and 1.34 WHIP in 86.2 innings across 17 starts this season. His importance to the Dodgers rotation has only increased with Shohei Ohtani temporarily unavailable as a pitcher, and Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow still working their way back from injury.
Dave Roberts hopes Roki Sasaki’s start against Yankees was turning point
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts compared Sasaki’s most recent outing to Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s start against the Yankees in 2024, which proved to be a turning point in his season.
“I hope so,” Roberts said on SportsNet LA when asked if a similar outcome could play out for Sasaki. “On the road, to battle his emotions and go out there and put forth the effort that he did was fun to watch. Hopefully he continues to build on that and it keeps giving him confidence.”
Yamamoto fired seven scoreless innings against the Yankees on June 7, 2024, in what marked only the 13th start of his MLB career. He had largely struggled with inconsistency up until that point and was able to finish his rookie season on a high note.
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