Los Angeles

Dodgers

Snell, returning from surgery to remove debris from his elbow, also walked one and gave up a single in the 32-pitch outing. His fastball averaged 95.3 mph, which is right around his norm (95.1 mph last year, 95.9 mph in 2024). This was expected to be a short outing, so it’s probably no issue that he exited in the second. He’s expected to make three or four more rehab starts before rejoining the Dodgers.

Because of the forecasted rain, the two clubs won’t take a chance of getting the game in. Instead, the two teams will play a doubleheader Sunday, beginning at 12:35 P.M. ET. Emmett Sheehan and Ryan Weathers — no pun intended — were the scheduled starters for Saturday’s game, and likely will pitch at some point Sunday in the twin billing.

Barnes elected free agency, but he returned to the Dodgers’ organization Friday. The 30-year-old is expected to piggyback with Blake Snell on Saturday, with Snell making a rehab appearance in Oklahoma City.

Sirota fell two games shy of matching the 74-game single-season record set by Andrew Velazquez for Low-A South Bend in 2014. The 23-year-old on-base machine has firmly established himself as one of the top fantasy prospects in the minor-league landscape, hitting .314/.468/.554 with 14 homers and 11 stelas in 363 plate appearances between High-A Great Lakes and Double-A Tulsa this season. However, his path to at-bats in Los Angeles is blocked by a plethora of veterans at the highest level. He could force his way into their long-term plans at some point next year, but it would likely take an injury or unexpected development for Sirota to reach the big leagues in the second half.

Díaz has struck out six of the nine batters he’s faced, while allowing just one baserunner, across three rehab outings in the lower minors. The 32-year-old stopper figures to be close to making it back to Los Angeles’ late-inning mix and figures to take over the closing duties from Tanner Scott upon his return. There should be a definitive timeline when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts speaks to reporters at some point this weekend.

Hernández played six innings at third base and recorded a double in his first rehab contest. The versatile 34-year-old role player shouldn’t need too much additional time in the minors getting back up to speed before he returns to Los Angeles. He played just one game in his return from offseason elbow surgery before suffering a left oblique strain in late May. There’s a chance he’s activated at some point this weekend.

On a quiet night for both offenses, Muncy’s homer was the difference in this game. He stepped up to the plate with the Dodgers down 1-0 in the seventh against Gerrit Cole and Mookie Betts on first base. It took a seven-pitch battle, but Cole eventually hung a slider and Muncy sent it a long way over the right field fence. That was his 18th home run of the season to go along with an .853 OPS in an excellent season so far for the left-handed slugger.

It took Scott just 11 pitches to dispatch the Yankees and earn the save here. His fastball was a tick harder than average and he made it look easy. He’s now converted nine of 10 save opportunities since the start of June and has performed like one of the best closers in the league. Just keep an eye on Edwin Díaz who’s currently out on a rehab assignment and will likely siphon off some save chances from Scott upon returning.

This was a very encouraging start to the second half for Sasaki. First off, he was pumping gas. His fastball averaged a shade over 100 mph and in total, he threw 21 pitches in triple digits and topped out at 102 mph. In his career to date before this start, he’d never topped 101 mph and had only thrown 15 pitches at or above 100 mph. His command was also much better than usual. There were a few more fastballs that caught corners and his splitter was consistently diving low and below the plate. Similarly, his slider was abnormally lethal. When Sasaki has his whole repertoire working like he did here, he’s a scary pitcher. The problem is that when something goes wrong, he struggles to get over that hump. That’s how he’s wound up with a 4.98 ERA through 86 2/3 innings on the season with this kind of stuff. The roller coaster will continue next Friday against the Mets.

The 31-year-old backstop will be shut down completely for the next week before beginning to ramp back up as he continues to deal with a nagging neck injury. Dalton Rushing will continue to see the bulk of the action behind the plate for the foreseeable future.