{"id":403081,"date":"2026-07-18T03:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T03:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403081\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T03:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T03:19:09","slug":"max-muncy-and-roki-sasaki-power-dodgers-to-win-over-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403081\/","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 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":2,"featured_media":403082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[16711,426,161688,9831,161689,107023,128821,48,52,51,47,50,49,4123,19349,161687,2668,20346,18492,1543,24642],"class_list":["post-403081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alex-vesia","tag-dodgers","tag-extra-base-hit","tag-first-time","tag-fork-ball","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-jasson-dominguez","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-max-muncy","tag-page","tag-right-field-gap","tag-run","tag-second-base","tag-seventh-inning","tag-win","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}