The Dodgers came out of the All-Star break looking a lot more like themselves, and Roki Sasaki had plenty to do with it.
Los Angeles slipped past the Yankees 2-1 on Friday night at Yankee Stadium, getting a sharp outing from Sasaki and just enough offense to back it up. The win moved the Dodgers to 62-36, while New York dropped to 54-43.
Sasaki turned in one of his best starts of the season, holding a dangerous Yankees lineup to five hits and one walk while striking out five. The lone run charged to him didn’t even come the hard way - it was unearned.
He leaned on all three of his pitches, missing bats all night, and his fastball was humming at more than 100 mph with real command. His splitter, in particular, gave the Yankees fits.
The Dodgers’ bats didn’t do much early against Cole, but they kept finding traffic. Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernandez opened the second inning with back-to-back two-out singles, only for Dalton Rushing to strike out and leave both runners stranded. In the third, Andy Pages followed with another two-out single, but Freddie Freeman went down on a slider to end that threat as well.
New York had its own chance in the third when Ryan McMahon doubled and Trent Grisham walked, but Ben Rice grounded into a double play to wipe it out.
The Yankees finally broke through in the fourth, and the inning started with a Dodgers mistake. Pages bobbled a ball in center field, turning what should have been a double into Jasson Domínguez reaching third. Then Rushing’s passed ball let the first run score, putting New York in front 1-0.
Sasaki’s night ended with the Dodgers still hanging around, and Jack Dreyer picked up the slack in the sixth. With two runners on, he struck out Domínguez to keep the game within reach.
Cole had been rolling, though he was also working past the 100-pitch mark for the first time since returning from injury. Then came the swing that changed everything. Max Muncy crushed a no-doubt two-run homer against Cole, flipping the game and giving Los Angeles a 2-1 lead.
The Dodgers’ defense, which had been shaky before the break, then delivered the kind of play that can save a game. In the bottom of the eighth, Ben Rice ripped a double into the center-field gap with one out.
Pages tracked it down and fired it in, Mookie Betts handled the relay and sent a throw home across his body, and Rushing made a terrific tag on the sliding Grisham to cut him down at the plate. It was a clean redemption moment after the earlier error that helped New York score.
Tanner Scott finished it off with a perfect ninth, retiring the Yankees in order to lock down the save.
The Dodgers and Yankees meet again Saturday, with Emmet Sheehan set to face Ryan Weathers at 5:08 p.m. PT on Fox.
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