Roki Sasaki’s dominant seven-inning gem and Kyle Tucker’s clutch power surge pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers further ahead as the best team in all of baseball.
The Los Angeles Dodgers won their third straight game as they took care of business against the New York Mets, 4-2.
A strong, seven-inning performance from Roki Sasaki propelled the Dodgers to a 66-38 record here in 2026.
With the best record in all of baseball, the Dodgers eye a busy trade deadline, one that could somehow make a team nearly 30 games over .500 even better.
The Mets fell to 43-61 and are certainly on the opposite end of the spectrum. Even though Sean Manaea delivered six solid innings of work, the Dodgers were able to jump on their bullpen. In the end, Brooks Raley fell to 4-5 on the year as he gave up a run in the seventh and AJ Minter allowed two more in the eighth.
1. Four players combine for nine of Dodgers' 11 hits
This Dodgers team may have had 11 hits on the night, but it was a quartet of players who combined for all but two of those.
Andy Pages and Mookie Betts deserve credit for recording hits in this game, and Pages also drew two of the team's three walks, but it was Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Kyle Tucker, and Teoscar Hernandez who stepped up in big ways.
In total, the Dodgers were just 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Freeman, who went 3-for-4 on the night with a pair of runs, delivered their lone hit with a runner in scoring position. By the end of the game, the Dodgers had left eight runners on base compared to the Mets' three.
No doubt, the biggest moment in this game came from Tucker. The former longtime Houston Astros outfielder delivered a clutch, two-out, eighth-inning home run. Sure, the Dodgers led 2-1 at that point, but Tucker's homer secured the two-run victory as the Mets ended up answering and scored a run in the bottom of the eighth.
2. Sasaki still can go deep into games
Consistency has been an issue with the 24-year-old, but he's now gone at least 5.2 innings in each of his last three starts. After making all nine of his postseason appearances out of the bullpen a year ago, there's a real chance the Dodgers were considering doing the same with Sasaki here in 2026.
The team could still revisit that, but this three-hit, one-run performance in seven innings of work proves Sasaki has what it takes to be a dominant starter. He improved to 4-5 on the year, and it's crazy to think this was his first win since Saturday, May 23. On top of that, he struck out nine batters, which is good for his second-best performance of the year.
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