NEW YORK -- The Dodgers' rotation is like a deck of cards. At full strength, they have four aces. They also have a wild card: Roki Sasaki.
No one around the Dodgers claims to have a good sense for the stuff Sasaki will bring to the mound on any given day. But when he's on, his teammates and coaches sense a heightened conviction in the way the ball comes out of his hand -- which trips up not only opposing hitters, but sometimes his catcher as well.
"I had trouble catching his splitter for half the game," Dalton Rushing said. "That’s a pretty good sign, I guess."
Sasaki brought the heat, and Max Muncy delivered the dagger on Friday night in the Bronx. After being swept for the first time to end the first half, the Dodgers began the second on a much better note, riding a resurgent start from Sasaki and a clutch go-ahead two-run blast from Muncy to a 2-1 win over the Yankees.
It doesn't get much sweeter than the previous time the Dodgers were at Yankee Stadium -- Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, the first of their back-to-back championships -- but the series-opening victory was just what they needed as they sought to put a poor ending to the first half behind them.
To manager Dave Roberts, it was reminiscent of when Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivered a statement performance at Yankee Stadium two years ago, in his first MLB season. That was thought to be a turning point for Yamamoto, and the hope is that perhaps this could be a similar moment for Sasaki.
"I think it’s one of those things where he wanted to get off on the right foot in the second half," Roberts said, "and he did just that.”
Sasaki struck out five, walked one and scattered five hits while holding the Yankees to one unearned run across 5 2/3 innings. He saw a notable uptick in fastball velocity, topping out at an MLB career-high 101.8 mph in the first inning. He threw 21 pitches at 100 mph or harder, the most of any Dodger since pitch tracking began in 2008.
Sasaki's average fastball velocity of 100.1 mph was his highest in a single MLB start. He had thrown his fastball harder only in relief, when he averaged 100.6 mph in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series last year.
"With the velo, it didn't actually feel like I had a great intensity, but the velo was actually there," Sasaki said through interpreter Kensuke Okubo. "I think that's a good thing."
The lone run that scored against Sasaki was a product of a sloppy defensive sequence in the fourth inning, when Jasson Domínguez took third base on a two-out double due to an Andy Pages fielding error in center and scored on a passed ball by Rushing.
The poor defense in the fourth inning, as well as an offense that could not get anything going against Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole through six innings, seemed to have carried over from how the Dodgers ended the first half. They made nine errors and were outscored 30-15 in their final five games before the All-Star break.
But the Dodgers flipped the script in the seventh inning. After Cole walked Mookie Betts to open the frame, the Yankees convened on the mound. Cole stayed in the game, to the elation of the home fans, who chanted his name. Muncy took the crowd out of it after driving a 2-2 slider to the second deck in right field, putting the Dodgers on top and chasing Cole from the game.
The Dodgers also pulled off an impressive relay in the eighth inning to preserve the one-run game, with Pages, Betts and Rushing combining to cut down Trent Grisham at the plate.
Not only was it a sorely needed comeback for the Dodgers, it was a vindicating outing for Sasaki. The 24-year-old right-hander had a stretch this season where he looked like the phenom who took Nippon Professional Baseball by storm, but he ended the first half having allowed 22 earned runs in his last 25 innings.
Even though the Dodgers know to expect the unexpected with Sasaki on the mound, they've learned that a wild card isn't necessarily a bad thing to have in their hand.
"There's times where he gives up a couple, then he settles down, or he's good until he's not," Roberts said. "Today, he was good all the way through."