The start of July for Roki Sasaki was a rocky one when he gave up six earned runs against the San Diego Padres to kick off the month. In his next two starts, which included his last start against the New York Yankees in the Bronx, the 24-year-old righty has not only found his footing on the mound, but his velocity has also jumped back to the usual triple digits.

Velocity and command had been Sasaki's namesake for positive outcomes recently, but during the Los Angeles Dodgers' 4-2 series-opening win on Friday against the New York Mets, the splitter took the spotlight. 

"He’s in compete mode. His delivery is repeatable, and with that, it just doesn’t seem like he’s searching anymore; he’s just trying to execute a game plan," Dave Roberts said on where he believes Sasaki is mechanically via SportsNetLA. 

Through seven innings, Sasaki held the Mets to just one run and struck out nine on 94 pitches. Six of the nine strikeouts came via the splitter, which registered a 63% whiff. 

“I was able to locate my splitter really well, and it was also sharp. The game plan really worked out," Sasaki said on the effectiveness of his splitter against New York via SportsNetLA. 

His fastball averaged 98.6 mph, and though he did top out at 100.3 mph, he recorded a career-high 21 swings and misses. 

“Fastball-wise, velo was a little down compared to last outing, but I felt the splitter was really good today, and then also, [Dalton] Rushing did a good job calling the game," Sasaki said. 

In his two starts between the two New York teams, Sasaki has given up just two earned runs across 12.5 innings (1.42 ERA) and has struck out 14. 

The Mets tacked on the first run of the game via a Luis Robert Jr. solo blast in the bottom of the second. From then on, it was goose eggs for the Metropolitans until Evan Phillips —who retired Sasaki on the mound — gave up New York's second home run of the game in the eighth to Francisco Alvarez. 

Offensively, the Dodgers experienced their fair share of trials and tribulations when it came to scoring runs. 

Los Angeles had chance after chance to come up in big spots, but would settle for two sacrifice flies (one by Miguel Rojas in the fourth to tie the game and another by Shohei Ohtani in the seventh to give the Dodgers the lead) before Kyle Tucker broke it open in the eighth. 

Tucker took A.J. Minter's 1-1 fastball 368 feet to right field for a two-run shot. 

Coming off his first five-out save with the Dodgers, Tanner Scott came in and recorded his 16th save of season to secure the win. 

With the victory, the Dodgers improve to 66-38. Los Angeles will look to take the series on Saturday with Yoshinobu Yamamoto (10-6, 2.78 ERA) toeing the rubber. 

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