Roki Sasaki has been on fire since major change - and it has nothing to do with Tarik Skubal or Shohei Ohtani
The Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher has turned around his 2026 season at the perfect time.
Heading into the MLB Trade Deadline , there was only one question mark surrounding the Los Angeles Dodgers : Was their starting pitching rotation going to hold up until and through the postseason?
The front office clearly had those doubts, as they pulled off a big trade for Tarik Skubal . With Shohei Ohtani an unknown - on the mound - going forward, no one was quite sure what the rotation was going to look like. Blake Snell has now returned from injury, and Tyler Glasnow is getting closer to a return of his own. Yet it might be Roki Sasaki who's been the biggest benefactor of all of this chaos.
Since the All-Star break, Sasaki has been on a tear. Over his last six starts, he's given up just nine earned runs over 34.3 innings, while punching out nearly one batter per inning . In fact, two of those earned runs should probably have been unearned due to a poor route taken by Teoscar Hernandez in Sasaki's most recent start.
Roki Sasaki seems to have stopped tipping pitches since switching to larger glove
Regardless, Sasaki has figured things out at the perfect time for the Dodgers. As it turns out, Sasaki's big change to turn around his season had nothing to do with the other pitchers coming and going from the rotation: Instead, it's been using a large glove in order to keep him from tipping pitches .
The Dodgers' pitching coaches implored Sasaki to make the switch to a different glove, and the results speak for themselves. Now, the Dodgers are almost fully ready for the postseason; they just need Ohtani to get back on the mound, too .
