{"id":942630,"date":"2026-07-18T04:53:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/942630\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T04:53:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:53:42","slug":"max-muncy-and-roki-sasaki-power-dodgers-to-win-over-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/942630\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Muncy and Roki Sasaki power Dodgers to win over Yankees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Dodgers All-Star third baseman Max Muncy<\/a> didn\u2019t get a break this week, traveling to Philadelphia to compete in the Midsummer Classic<\/a>. But even without the extra rest, he put a charge into his go-ahead swing Friday.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers struggled against veteran Yankees starter Gerrit Cole \u2014 until he hung a slider to Muncy in the seventh inning. Muncy launched it for a two-run blast to carry the Dodgers to a 2-1 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you can find a way to win a game when Gerrit Cole\u2019s pitching, it\u2019s a good thing,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said. <\/p>\n

Between the come-from-behind win, a strong showing from Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki and a defensive turnaround, the Dodgers (62-36) came out of the All-Star break on a positive note.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

It was clear early on that Sasaki, who didn\u2019t give up an earned run in 5 \u2154 innings, had something a little extra.<\/p>\n

Pitching at Yankee Stadium for the first time, he punctuated a clean first inning by getting ahead of Paul Goldschmidt with 101.8- and 101.7-mph fastballs, en route to a five-pitch strikeout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a big smile on my face when I saw 102,\u201d Roberts said. <\/p>\n

It was the first time Sasaki topped 101 mph in a regular-season game, according to Statcast. He threw 21 pitches at 100 mph or harder, the most of any Dodger since pitch tracking began in 2008. Sasaki pointed to the rest he got over the All-Star break and a delivery tweak for his increase in velocity. <\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of changed the way I use my lower body,\u201d Sasaki said. \u201cSo I\u2019m really happy to get that velo up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yankees (54-43) scored their only run against Sasaki by taking advantage of a pair of defensive mistakes.<\/p>\n

With two outs in the fourth, center fielder Andy Pages bobbled Jasson Dom\u00ednguez\u2019s double in right-center field, giving him time to get to third. The next pitch, a forkball, got past catcher Dalton Rushing, and Dom\u00ednguez raced home.<\/p>\n

Pages later found some redemption with a defensive gem to end the fifth. He made a full-speed tumbling catch in the right-field gap to rob Austin Wells of an extra-base hit.<\/p>\n

Cole held the Dodgers to just four hits in six-plus innings. Before the seventh, only one Dodgers runner reached second base, when Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez hit back-to-back singles in the second.<\/p>\n

Cole came back out for the seventh and walked Mookie Betts to lead off the inning. After a mound visit, he stayed in to face Muncy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough decision for [Yankees manager Aaron Boone],\u201d Roberts said. \u201cYou\u2019re thinking about going to the \u2018pen, or do you let your ace go after Max and Tucker. And Max spoiled some good pitches and then got a pitch in his wheelhouse and put a good swing on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muncy fell into a two-strike count, but he kept battling. On the seventh pitch, he saw something he could drive \u2014 416 feet at a 30-degree launch angle, to be exact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe swing felt great,\u201d Muncy said on the Spectrum SportsNet LA broadcast. \u201cThe result was better and it gave us a chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dodgers relievers Jack Dreyer, Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott chipped in a combined 3\u2153 scoreless innings to secure the win. The Yankees came inches away from tying the score in the eighth, but the Dodgers, shaking off their pre-All-Star break rough patch, delivered on defense. <\/p>\n

With Trent Grisham on first after a walk, Ben Rice hit a double into the right-field gap off Vesia. Pages chased down the ball and quickly fired to shortstop Betts, who threw it home. Rushing\u2019s sweeping tag beat Grisham to the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was huge,\u201d Betts said. \u201cWe still had a couple mishaps in this game. We\u2019ve got to clean that up for sure. You can\u2019t win a World Series doing what we did today. But we\u2019ll keep working and try to clean it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Dodgers All-Star third baseman Max Muncy didn\u2019t get a break this week, traveling to Philadelphia to compete…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":942631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[52640,1582,276,2442,379613,6803,379614,46398,80453,2961,224,5337,8327,15433,379612,10201,166947,16106,2030,2386],"class_list":["post-942630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alex-vesia","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-dodgers","tag-extra-base-hit","tag-first-time","tag-fork-ball","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-jasson-dominguez","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-max-muncy","tag-page","tag-right-field-gap","tag-run","tag-second-base","tag-seventh-inning","tag-win","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116939196437684459","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}