Roki Sasaki settles in, silences Mets as Dodgers win

NEW YORK – There were signs as you entered Citi Field Friday night, letting fans know a film tentatively titled “The Catch” would be filming during the New York Mets’ game against the Dodgers.

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A ‘rom-com’ starring Emma Stone and Chris Pine, the plot is still under wraps. Whatever ‘meet-cute’ story of finding love at the ballpark it tells, it is not likely to be as much of a big-budget flop as the Mets themselves.

Roki Sasaki, meanwhile, performed like a major motion-picture star, holding the Mets to just three hits while striking out nine in seven innings as the Dodgers made themselves comfortable back in New York with a 4-2 victory.

Sasaki had an 8.61 ERA over his last five starts before the All-Star break but has allowed just one earned run in 12⅔ innings over his two New York, New York starts since the break (against the Yankees last weekend and the Mets Friday night).

“I thought his last start he was fantastic and tonight I think was even better. Tonight was even better,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Like we said before the start, just keep stacking good outings. He had a good run in May. Let’s keep building on this.”

Sasaki seemed to turn the corner in May, going 2-1 with a 3.18 ERA in five starts. But he backslid in that stretch before the All-Star break. Sasaki has cited adjustments in his delivery as the biggest factor in his success the past two starts.

Or is it the glove?

The Dodgers were convinced Sasaki had been tipping his pitches and promised a “deep dive” to eliminate the problem. Sasaki emerged with what appeared to be a larger glove in his past two starts.

“It’s about the same size,” Sasaki insisted through his interpreter, denying that he was tipping his pitches. “Probably my face kind of got smaller. That’s why the glove looked bigger.”

In Japanese culture, a small face – kogao – is considered a mark of beauty. Sasaki has certainly looked more handsome in his past two starts.

“Tonight was just a good exhibition of pitching,” Roberts said, pleading ignorance on the size of Sasaki’s glove – or face. “The command was really good. Left that ball middle-in to (Luis) Robert for the homer. But outside of that, I thought innings four through seven, that split was really unhittable.”

The velocity boost that saw Sasaki throw seven pitches 101 mph or higher, topping out at an MLB career-high 101.8 mph, and averaging 100.1 mph in his first start out of the All-Star break last week at Yankee Stadium didn’t quite follow him to Queens.

Sasaki averaged a slightly lower octane against the Mets. He averaged 98.6 mph on his four-seam fastball, touched 100 mph just three times (with the help of rounding up) and got just two swings-and-misses with it. One of those fastballs – a 99.1 mph version waste-high over the plate – was clubbed over the left-field wall by Luis Robert Jr. in the second inning.

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But that was all Sasaki allowed in his seven innings (matching the longest outing of his MLB career). He gave up just two other hits, walked Juan Soto twice (before Soto left the game with a calf injury) and struck out nine, primarily with a splitter that got 15 of his career-high 21 swings-and-misses.

“It just started out as a strike,” Roberts said. “And obviously the threat of velocity he has. So now if he can get that split starting in the same window, it’s hard to lay off that pitch. The low dart was in play today and then the split off of that.”

Sasaki, oddly, said he didn’t have “that much confidence” in his splitter but he liked how it performed Friday.

“I think there are two things,” he said. “I was able to keep attacking the zone and also my off-speed pitch (his slider) had some kind of movement.”

The Dodgers’ offense didn’t fare much better against Mets starter Sean Manaea over the first six innings.

The Dodgers scratched out a run in the fourth on a leadoff single by Freddie Freeman (the first of his three hits in the game), a single by Mookie Betts that sent Freeman to third and a sacrifice fly by Miguel Rojas. They didn’t take the lead until the seventh inning against the Mets bullpen when Shohei Ohtani drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Kyle Tucker gave the Dodgers’ bullpen some breathing room with a two-run home run in the top of the eighth inning. It was his first home run since June 27, 80 plate appearances ago. It is just his eighth this season after averaging 27 per year over the previous five seasons.

“There’s some times where I see the ball coming in, put a swing on it, and I can visualize the ball coming off the bat and doing what I want with it, but it doesn’t really go that way, which is a little frustrating,” Tucker said. “It happens at times, but at the same time, I just gotta battle for the next pitch and just continue on with the at-bat.”

It became the deciding blow when Evan Phillips gave up a solo home run to Francisco Alvarez in the bottom of the eighth. Phillips has given up three home runs in his first six innings since returning from Tommy John surgery.

With Edwin Diaz just days away from returning from his own elbow surgery, Tanner Scott closed it out for his 16th save.

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