TLDR: The Dodgers are coming off a White House visit and a red-hot second half. The Mets are coming off a trade-deadline fire sale in progress. This one has a very different feel for each dugout.
Roki Sasaki draws Sean Manaea in the series opener at Citi Field, first pitch 7:10 PM ET, and both arms are trying to build off very different momentum. Sasaki has been wildly inconsistent all year but just authored maybe his best start as a Dodger, blowing 100-mph fastballs by the Yankees lineup. Manaea, meanwhile, is trying to shake off a rough turn against the Phillies where he couldn't get through the fifth inning.
Roki Sasaki
(5-5)·4.64 ERA
Jul 17 @ Yankees
ND
5.2IP
0ER
5K
1BB
94P
07/24 Lineup
Sean Manaea
(3-5)·4.33 ERA
Jul 18 @ Phillies
L
4.2IP
4ER
7K
2BB
99P
07/24 Lineup
The Dodgers (65-38) enter having taken series wins over both the Yankees and Phillies to open the second half, and they're doing it without two projected rotation cornerstones in Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, both still on the 60-day injured list. Edwin Diaz remains out too, which has forced Dave Roberts to get creative in high-leverage innings — a real crack in an otherwise stacked roster.
New York is in a much different spot. At 43-60, the Mets are reportedly open for business ahead of the trade deadline, and a roster that was supposed to compete has instead spent the summer treading water. Mark Vientos is out with a fractured hand, and the rotation has its own issues with Clay Holmes and Justin Hagenman both on the shelf. Manaea's start on July 9 — seven strikeouts over seven innings, his longest outing in 639 days — showed the upside is still in there somewhere, but it hasn't been the norm.
Both teams have been streaky rather than steady lately — the Dodgers alternating losses with blowout wins, the Mets losing 3 of their last 5 with a pair of one-run defeats mixed in. That kind of form usually favors the deeper roster in a longer sample, and that's the Dodgers, even shorthanded in the bullpen.
None of this changes the vibe around Queens right now: a talented group that's underachieved, angling toward selling instead of buying. For the Dodgers, it's just another stop on a schedule built around October, not July.
Dodgers 4, Mets 2: Final Score & Odds Recap — Reigning Champs Roll Into Queens as Mets Sink Further
