NEW YORK — Puddles of liquor surrounded the Los Angeles Dodgers the last time they were inside the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, 625 days ago, as they celebrated their 2024 championship. Coming back to this place Friday provided little in terms of imbibement or fanfare. The result was familiar, though. They overcame another Gerrit Cole start as the Dodgers continued writing the next chapter in their pursuit of a historic three-peat.Cole had dominated the Dodgers over six innings when New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone came out for a visit. Cole, in the 10th start of an arduous recovery from Tommy John surgery, had issued a leadoff walk to Mookie Betts. A reliever, Brent Headrick, was warm and ready to enter.Cole wanted more. Boone let him try to hold a 1-0 lead. Then Max Muncy launched Cole’s seventh pitch of the at-bat, and 103rd pitch of the night, into the second deck and admired his work.“The swing felt good,” Muncy said after the two-run blast that proved to be a decisive blow. “The result was better.”A 2-1 win over the Yankees provided a sweet return to the place where they clinched their 2024 World Series title with a fifth inning against Cole that will live forever on bumper stickers.Maybe they’ll be back here again this fall. Until then, all that really matters is who is healthy when the postseason rolls around.That begins and ends with Shohei Ohtani, who spent this week resting his balky left knee instead of participating in the All-Star festivities in Philadelphia. The Dodgers initially thought Ohtani would drain the knee on Sunday. Instead, the two-way star received an injection of Orthovisc — a hyaluronic acid aimed to add cushion to his painful left kneecap, the same one he had surgery on in 2019.The knee has mostly bothered Ohtani on the mound, rather than at the plate. It was nonetheless reassuring that he was in the lineup Friday. He jogged slowly when he grounded out in his first at-bat against Cole. He went hitless in four at-bats, but missed catching the right-field porch at Yankee Stadium for a home run by just a matter of feet in the third inning.MLB cracks down on using AI in dugoutsThe Dodgers will be careful with Ohtani the rest of the way. They skipped his final pitching start before the All-Star break and will have him be the last of their six starters to make a start in the second half. His expected start on Wednesday in Philadelphia comes before an off day. That is no coincidence.“I think it’s safe to say even if there isn’t an off day behind it, I would like to give him that next day off,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But, ideally yeah, you would like to have the scheduled off day behind it.”