Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Yankees

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.