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Roki Sasaki has switched to a larger glove in an effort to stop tipping his pitches, per DodgerBlue.com. The adjustment appeared to pay off Friday night in the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the New York Yankees, where Sasaki turned in one of his best starts of the season — 5.2 innings, one unearned run, five hits. He threw 21 pitches at 100 mph or more during the outing, breaking Bobby Miller‘s franchise record for most triple-digit pitches in a single game.

Pitch tipping has been a persistent issue for Sasaki since he arrived in Los Angeles. When hitters can identify what’s coming — whether it’s a subtle glove position, a grip flash, or a timing tell — it doesn’t matter how hard you throw. Sasaki’s fastball is electric, routinely sitting in the upper 90s and touching 101-plus, but velocity alone can’t bail you out if a major-league hitter knows what pitch is on the way. Going to a bigger glove is a simple, smart fix. It better conceals his grip and hand movement during his pre-pitch setup, which is likely where the tell was living. It’s the kind of mechanical tweak that doesn’t require overhauling anything — just hiding the ball better.

Sasaki’s 2026 season has been a study in flashes and frustration. The stuff has always been there. The 24-year-old came to the Dodgers as one of the most hyped international signings in recent memory after his dominant tenure with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s NPB, where he famously threw a perfect game in 2022 with 19 strikeouts. But the transition to MLB has come with growing pains — adjusting to a new ball, a different mound, a 162-game grind, and lineups that study every frame of video looking for edges. His inconsistency this year has largely been a matter of getting hit harder than his raw stuff should allow, which is exactly what pitch tipping does. If the bigger glove solves even part of that problem, we could see a very different pitcher in the second half.

That 21-pitch, 100-mph performance against the Yankees is the kind of thing that reminds you why the Dodgers went after Sasaki in the first place. Miller’s record for triple-digit pitches in a game wasn’t some dusty old mark — it was a testament to elite arm strength. Sasaki blew past it. The raw power is not in question. The question has always been whether he can keep hitters from squaring him up, and this glove change is a direct response to that.

For the Dodgers, this matters beyond just one good start. With Shohei Ohtani out of the pitching rotation indefinitely due to knee pain and the rotation already stretched thin, they need Sasaki to be a reliable front-of-rotation arm. They can’t afford for him to keep giving away pitches. If a bigger glove is all it takes to unlock the version of Sasaki that dominated professional hitters in Japan, this is the kind of small adjustment that could have an outsized impact on the rest of our season. I’ll be watching his next start closely to see if the results hold — one outing is encouraging, but we need a trend.

Source(s): Staff (DodgerBlue.com) | First reported: July 21, 2026 8:07 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers