Roki Sasaki headed into the All-Star break with a 5.33 ERA through his first 16 starts of 2026. What happened next wasn’t a lucky bounce. Over four consecutive post-break outings, the Dodgers‘ Japanese right-hander has put up a 1.88 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 24 innings — and there’s a clear, specific explanation for the flip.
Start by Start
- July 17 vs. Yankees: 5.2 IP, 0 ER, 5 K
- July 24 vs. Mets: 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 9 K — the best of the stretch
- July 30 vs. Mariners: 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 7 K
- August 7 vs. Diamondbacks: 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 K — a no-decision; the Dodgers lost 4-3 on a walk-off
Total over the stretch: 24 innings, 1.88 ERA, K:BB ratio of 31:8. His full-season ERA still sits at 4.54 with a 1.28 WHIP across 105 innings — the sample is small, but the direction is impossible to ignore.
The Bigger Glove and 21 Triple-Digit Fastballs
The most visible change was simple: the Dodgers put Sasaki in a larger Nike glove to better hide his grip. Opponents had been picking up his pitch type before the ball even left his hand, and the adjustment was obvious enough that TV commentators flagged it on the spot during his first post-break start.
But the glove was only part of it. Sasaki also reworked his lower-half mechanics to get his velocity back — and the results showed immediately on July 17 against New York: 21 pitches at 100 mph or above, a Dodgers record in the Statcast era (since 2008), topping the previous mark of 20 set by Bobby Miller.
Against the Mets on July 24, Sasaki leaned on his splitter 47% of the time — a 21-percentage-point jump over his season average — while cutting fastball usage by 11%. New York hitters whiffed on 21 of 50 swings, a career-high in MLB. He retired his final nine batters in a row and struck out the side in the sixth inning, both firsts in his big-league career.
The Luxury Problem: Skubal Arrived Right When Sasaki Took Off
The timing couldn’t be more awkward. The Dodgers acquired Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline, creating a logjam of elite starters in the rotation. Questions about Sasaki’s spot in it surfaced almost immediately — and they landed at exactly the moment he’s pitching the best baseball of his short MLB career.
No decision has been made. What is clear: Sasaki came to this franchise in 2025 after four seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines in NPB — where he threw a perfect game at age 20, the youngest pitcher ever to do so in Japanese baseball — and his first full big-league season now has two very different halves to it.
The Dodgers won the first three games Sasaki started after the break; the August 7 loss to Arizona was the only setback of the stretch, and by the slimmest margin. The team has dropped seven straight, but Sasaki’s lines aren’t the reason why.
With a 4.54 ERA on the full season and a 1.88 ERA over the last four starts, the question now is whether he can sustain it — and whether Los Angeles gives him the rotation spot to find out.
