Roki Sasaki Made Significant Change, Giving Dodgers Hope for Turnaround

The change you've all been waiting for might have arrived.

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) throws a pitch against the Chicago Cubs during the third inning at Dodger Stadium on April 25, 2026. | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Roki Sasaki's pitching line in his most recent start Saturday against the Chicago Cubs — five innings, seven hits and four runs allowed, one walk, one hit batter — did not "do justice" to his performance.

In this case, even the numbers just below the surface didn't tell the whole story, either.

Sasaki threw 48 split-fingered fastballs against the Cubs. That's more than he has thrown in any of his five starts for the Dodgers this season. In this case, the "how" and "how hard" is more important than the "how many."

The splitter averaged 91 mph against the Cubs — nearly 6 mph faster than Sasaki had been throwing the downward-breaking pitch. It came with a new grip, which assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness suggested Sasaki try in a bullpen session earlier this week.

The results: Of the three home runs Sasaki allowed against the Cubs, none came against the splitter. The pitch was responsible for four of his five strikeouts.

“You could just tell with the swings he was getting from it versus the ones he had gotten from the slower [splitter], it was much more competitive,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior told Katie Woo of The Athletic.

For most of Sasaki's brief career in Los Angeles, finding reasons to believe he might establish himself as a major-league caliber starter felt like grasping at straws. Pitchers need at least three average-or-better pitches to be effective as starters, preferably more.

On many nights, Sasaki had two. That helps explain, in part, why Sasaki had more success pitching in relief last September and October for the Dodgers than he ever did as a starter: Batters never had to face him more than once in a game, lessening their ability to anticipate Sasaki's limited repertoire.

The harder splitter Sasaki showed the Cubs was more like the version of the pitch he threw in Japan. In other words, he finally did something to better resemble the player the Dodgers signed in January 2025 — a change many had been anticipating for some time.

Saturday, you didn't have to squint to see a path forward for Sasaki as a starter. He kept going back to his new-look splitter, throwing it a season-high 48.5% of the time. The Cubs still couldn't figure it out.

Sasaki still has to put it all together. Batters were still able to feast off his fastball and slider more than he or the Dodgers would have liked Saturday.

But for the first time in 2026, you didn't have to squint to see what the three pitches might look like when complementing each other in full.

“I thought tonight was Roki’s best outing. I don’t think the line does it justice,” Roberts told reporters after Saturday's game. “I think him and Connor [McGuiness] and Mark [Prior] were working on some things and wanted to add a little bit more velocity to it. It simulates a fastball more versus some type of offspeed pitch.

"Good stuff to build off of.”

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on X/Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.