Roki Sasaki strikes out nine, leads Dodgers past Mets

Roki Sasaki struck out nine and allowed one run over seven innings Friday night at Citi Field, steering the Dodgers to a 4-2 win over the Mets. The outing mattered beyond one box score: it was Sasaki’s first win in two months and another sign that Los Angeles may be gaining a starter who can handle a contender’s spotlight without fading deep into games.

Sasaki was tagged for an early home run, then settled in and allowed only two other hits the rest of the way. Major League Baseball listed the performance as his fourth win of the season, and it matched the longest outing he had thrown in the majors since May 17, when he reached seven innings against the Angels and set a previous career high with eight strikeouts.

The Dodgers needed that kind of length against a high-profile opponent. Freddie Freeman collected three hits and pushed Los Angeles ahead with a sacrifice fly off Brooks Raley in the seventh inning, then Kyle Tucker broke the game open with a two-run homer in the eighth. Sasaki’s work held up because the Dodgers got timely support, but the structure of the win started with seven efficient innings from a pitcher still building trust in a demanding rotation.

Los Angeles improved to 66-38 and opened the series with a win, a useful result in a season where every strong start shapes how aggressively the club can manage its bullpen. Seven innings from a starter is increasingly valuable in a sport built around matchups and relief traffic, and Sasaki’s performance gave the Dodgers exactly that kind of cover against the Mets.

For Sasaki, the start added another data point to a growing case that he is moving beyond the label of headline import. Two months after his last victory, he delivered durability, strikeout stuff and the ability to recover after a mistake. Against a team with postseason-level expectations of its own, that is the sort of outing that changes how a rotation is viewed, not just how a single game is scored.