The Dodgers opened the second half the way they will need to win in late October: a dominant starter, a lockdown bullpen, and one swing. Roki Sasaki held the Yankees to a single unearned run over 5.2 innings, and Max Muncy‘s two-run homer off Gerrit Cole in the seventh stood up for a 2-1 win Friday night at Yankee Stadium — Muncy’s 18th of the season, as noted in our game bulletin.
Sasaki was the story. He scattered five hits, walked one and struck out five on 94 pitches, and per Dodgers Nation he threw 21 pitches at 100 mph or harder — the most by a Dodgers pitcher in any game since pitch tracking began. For a pitcher who entered the night with a 5.33 ERA and left at 4.98, the velocity was the loudest development of the evening. The only New York run required no swing at all: Jasson Domínguez doubled in the fourth, took third when Andy Pages misplayed the ball in center, and scored on a Dalton Rushing passed ball.
Cole was nearly as good — six innings, four hits, eight strikeouts — and the game turned on his first batter of the seventh. Mookie Betts worked a walk, Muncy drove a fly ball into the right-field seats, and a 1-0 deficit became a 2-1 lead in the span of two hitters. That was the entire Los Angeles offense; Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman went a combined 0-for-8.
The bullpen made it hold. Jack Dreyer stranded two runners to end the sixth and worked a perfect seventh for the win, Alex Vesia wobbled through the eighth with two walks but no damage, and Tanner Scott retired the side in the ninth for the save — 3.1 innings, one hit, no runs from the relief corps. At 62-36, the Dodgers keep banking these low-margin road wins, and the formula that beat Cole on Friday is the one that travels in October.
Fantasy angle: Sasaki’s velocity spike is the number to act on — if a frustrated manager in your league cut him during the first-half slide, this is the last cheap window to buy. Muncy (18 HR, .853 OPS) remains a top-tier corner-infield play, and Scott’s save reaffirms he owns the ninth inning in a bullpen full of alternatives.
