Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
This felt like an important game for Roki Sasaki to see if he could continue to build on a great start last time out, and he ended up doing that and then some, setting a career-high over seven great innings for the Dodgers. Meanwhile, the lineup struggled to get the big hit against the Mets pitching, but they manufactured a lead and got a big blow from Kyle Tucker (!!!) to power them to a 4-2 win.
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Coming off the best start of his career in terms of stuff, Roki Sasaki returned to the mound and had one of the best starts of his career in terms of results.
While he basically intentionally walked Juan Soto in the 1st, he otherwise didn’t have any trouble.
Things got a bit worrisome with one out in the 2nd when Luis Robert Jr. hit a towering homer to left to give the Mets a 1-0 lead and a double followed, but he managed to navigate around that traffic to minimize the damage.
CRUSHED ? pic.twitter.com/BCKTKn9cFL
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 24, 2026
In the 3rd, he faced the minimum after issuing another basically intentional walk to Soto and then getting a double play. He followed that with a clean 4th that included two strikeouts and a humiliation of Carson Benge.
A lead-off single started the 5th, and despite a two-base wild pitch with two outs, Roki worked around that traffic as well.
The 6th? Arguably Roki’s best inning as he struck out the side in order for the first time in his career.
Roki’s pitch count was surprisingly reasonable at that point, and he was able to cruise through the inning. He set a career high in this game with 21 whiffs: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K, 94 Pitches.
He also ended up leaving with the lead.
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On the other end, Sean Manaea was able to work out of trouble against the Dodgers for most of the night. Things started in the 1st when he stranded a lead-off single, though he then got a clean 2nd.
A lead-off double started the 3rd, but a couple of outs later and he was only moved to third, and after a walk Manaea was able to strand him there. They finally managed to scrape something across in the 4th, as back-to-back singles from Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts cornered things, setting things up for a Miguel Rojas sac fly to tie it at 1-1.
Back-to-back singles from Freddie and Mookie leads to a sac fly from Miggy and it's tied. pic.twitter.com/xPLUV5eo6j
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 25, 2026
A controversial walk to Kyle Tucker then put a pair on, but both of those were stranded as well to end the 4th.
Manaea got a break to start the 5th when Shohei Ohtani yoinked a ball down the line and was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple, resulting in something like a 1-2-3 frame. Finally, a lead-off Freddie double started the 6th against him, a flyout moved him to third, and Miggy tried to repeat the sac fly formula … but Benge had other ideas.
Miggy tried to hit another sac fly with Freddie at third and he pushed his luck one too many times. pic.twitter.com/rdSoMRVOfn
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 25, 2026
The upside is Manaea was out of the game at that point, and they got a lucky rally going against Brooks Raley in the 7th via an infield single from Kyle Tucker and a bloop single from Teoscar Hernandez to corner the runners. However, Dalton Rushing was made to try a safety squeeze and that didn’t work out.
Rushing is made to safety squeeze for some reason and Tucker does well to stay in the rundown. I … too much bunting this year, man. pic.twitter.com/Dd2deTQyT8
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 25, 2026
Tucker did well to allow both runners to advance, which at least allowed Shohei Ohtani to hit a sac fly to center to take a 2-1 lead before the threat ended.
Ohtani hits a deep flyball to manufacture the lead by scoring the fastest Dodger this year. pic.twitter.com/6jUxUxHrrA
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 25, 2026
The Dodgers got insurance from a surprising source in the 8th against A.J. Minter. The rally started with a Freeman single and stolen base, but back-to-back infield pops threatened the chance. No worries, Kyle Tucker (yes, you read that correctly) to the rescue with a two-run shot, his eighth of the year to make it 4-1 Dodgers.
KYLE TUCKER TWO-RUN HOMER FOR INSURANCE
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 25, 2026
START THE PARTY LOS ANGELES https://t.co/nhnddqbpKm pic.twitter.com/CExPYvJPnk
That was all for the Dodger bats as they got nothing in the 9th, but it was enough.
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That said, Evan Phillips continued to look rusty in the 8th. I mean he still looked good most of the time, but the command clearly isn’t where he wants it to be and he hung another one for a homer to Francisco Alvarez to cut the lead to 4-2.
Alvy ? pic.twitter.com/KG3NMDLFSx
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 25, 2026
Tanner Scott entered for the save in the 9th, and got a 1-2-3 frame in the 9th.
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lol
Watching baseball.
— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) July 24, 2026 at 3:35 PM
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66-38, best record in baseball, three wins in a row.
The series continues on the weekend at 1:15 PM HT/4:15 PM PT/7:15 PM ET on FOX. It’ll be the marquee matchup in Yoshinobu Yamamoto against Nolan McLean.
