NEW YORK — The Dodgers needed a response after getting swept before the All-Star break by Arizona, and they got one in the least Dodger way possible: quietly, on the road, in a game that stayed a coin flip until the seventh inning. Roki Sasaki matched Gerrit Cole punch for punch for most of the night, a Bronx miscue nearly stole the game out from under him anyway, and Max Muncy made sure it didn’t matter. The Dodgers opened this series with a 2-1 win at Yankee Stadium, snapping their pre-break funk before it could become a habit and giving Los Angeles a much-needed jolt heading into the second half.
Sasaki battles, then New York cashes in on the mistakes
Sasaki looked like a pitcher trying to prove a point after a shaky stretch of his own. He worked around traffic most of the night, scattering five hits and a walk across five and two-thirds innings while racking up five strikeouts against a Yankees lineup that rarely got a clean swing off him. The only run he allowed didn’t even need a hit to score.
In the fourth, Jasson Dominguez ripped a double to center that Andy Pages couldn’t corral cleanly, and the extra bases on the error put Dominguez at third. Two batters later, a passed ball by Dalton Rushing let him walk home standing up. Sasaki had done enough to keep the Yankees off the board on merit. The Dodgers gave one back anyway, and it looked for a while like it might be the difference in the game.
It didn’t help that the top of the Dodgers order stayed cold for most of the night. Shohei Ohtani went hitless in four at-bats, Freddie Freeman struck out three times without reaching base, and Andy Pages managed just a single knock of his own while chasing down the misplay in center. If not for one swing in the seventh, this recap reads very differently.
Muncy answers in the seventh
Cole had been just as stubborn on the other side, working around Dodgers contact all night before the seventh finally caught up to him. Mookie Betts drew a leadoff walk, and a few pitches later Max Muncy turned on one and sent it out to right field for his 18th homer of the season, a two-run shot that flipped a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 Dodgers lead.
It was the kind of swing this team had been missing since before the break, sudden and decisive, and it was enough to chase Cole from the game before he could finish the seventh. Brent Headrick came on in relief, and the Yankees never threatened again with the bats that had built the early lead. Tommy Edman added a double of his own in the eighth, but the rally died there when the next three Dodgers went down in order.
The bullpen survives a couple of scares
Jack Dreyer picked up where Sasaki left off and worked a scoreless one and a third for the win, and Alex Vesia inherited the toughest spot of the night in the eighth. Trent Grisham walked and Ben Rice ripped a double to center, but Andy Pages and Mookie Betts’ relay throw home was strong enough to get Grisham at the plate, a call the Yankees challenged and lost on review.
Vesia intentionally walked Paul Goldschmidt to load the bases before getting Cody Bellinger to fly out and strand all three runners, the kind of jam that could have unraveled a one-run lead in a hurry.
New York challenged again in the ninth, this time on a pitch call against Max Muncy, and came up empty a second time. Tanner Scott closed it out for his 14th save, and the Yankees went down in order against him to end it, sending the Dodgers to a much-needed win to open the series.
Up next
The Dodgers and Yankees play game two of the series Saturday, with Emmet Sheehan taking the ball against Ryan Weathers. First pitch from the Bronx is scheduled for 5:08 p.m. PST, and the Dodgers will look to build on this win before closing out the weekend series in New York.
