Faces in the crowd tell a story. In the eighth inning Thursday night, most of the 43,882 fans at Citi Field got the exit. The rest stared straight ahead, stony-faced, looking shocked and disbelieving, only for a moment when they gave a mocking cheer after their pitchers finally managed to pull off Max Muncy.
The New York Mets, who showed strength and power to reach the National League Championship Series, endured another beating by the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were beaten 8-0 in Queens in Game 3. 10-2 defeat at the same venue in Game 4.
Here are three takeaways as the Dodgers edged the Mets and moved one win away from returning to the World Series for the first time since winning it all in 2020.
1. Is the Mets magic over?
The relentless nature of the Mets is what got them here. They were 11 games under .500 on June 2. From that point on, nobody in baseball was better. McDonald’s mascot became a lasting image of the team’s rising and dynamic vibe. As the team began to win, “OMG” became their anthem. Not only were they beautiful, they were fun.
Francisco Lindor ensured that the aura will last until October with his game-winning player that sent them to the playoffs on the last day of the regular season. When Pete Alonso trailed in the wild card series with the team down two runs, two outs away from finishing with a game-winning homer against one of the best closers in baseball, this proved to be the team of the future.
They even ran at the Dodgers, who scored 21 runs in four games.
The Mets hit .265 with an .808 OPS with runners in scoring position during the regular season. In the NLCS, they hit .138 with a .541 OPS and seven RBIs in those situations. The Dodgers, meanwhile, are hitting .333 with a .942 OPS and 24 RBIs with runners in scoring position.
In Game 4, the Mets had 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position and failed to record all of them. Their worst offense came in the sixth inning, after Mookie Betts delivered one of his four homers of the night to extend the Dodgers’ lead to five. The Mets responded in the bottom half of the frame by loading the bases with no outs.
Then?
Jose Iglesias helps celebrate. Jeff McNeil sent a fly ball to center field that might have been deep enough to score Brandon Nimmo if not for the plantar fasciitis that has plagued the Mets player throughout the series. He didn’t even try to score. When Jesse Winker’s promising drive to right field hit the warning track, it was over.
At the beginning of September, the odds of the Mets making the playoffs were 29.6%. If they’re looking for some motivation, that percentage isn’t far off the odds to win the LCS with three elimination games to go. Teams up 3-1 won 82% of the time.
If the Mets can somehow find a way to dig themselves out of the hole they’ve created here, it will be their biggest trick of a season that has seemed magical so far.
2. The Mets’ biggest advantage didn’t play.
The tone of the series was quickly set when Jack Flaherty pitched seven scoreless innings in his best start for the Dodgers while Kodai Senga allowed as many runs (four) as he did in Game 1. But considering the lack of Senga’s innings this year, that was one matchup that seemed to favor the Dodgers. The Mets were supposed to be the starting depth team.
Sean Manaea showed plenty in Game 2, drawing opposing hitters as the Mets disrupted the Dodgers’ bullpen game plans, ending Los Angeles pitchers’ 33-inning hitting streak and turning all the momentum around the series to New York.
Luis Severino and Jose Quintana should feel good against Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto the next two nights.
The Dodgers then blanked them in both games, walking four times against Severino in Game 3 and another four times against Quintana in Game 4 as a disciplined LA lineup forced both Mets starters out early. It was a tough assignment for Quintana, who lives to chase, against a team unwilling to leave the strike zone.
Buehler and Yamamoto, meanwhile, combined to strike out 14 batters and allow two runs in 8.1 innings.
Related: Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts make Dodgers look unbeatable: ‘He’s up against Hall of Famers’
The Mets had not faced Yamamoto since April 19, when he allowed four runs (three earned) in six innings. He didn’t throw sliders in that meeting. In Game 4, he changed it up, throwing 14 in it, which was a season high. The Mets hit half of their 10 hits against the field, which contributed to Yamamoto’s four of eight hits.
It was the same pitch Yamamoto used to hit the Yankees during his last time in New York, when he threw seven scoreless innings on June 7 in a game that was talked about before the playoffs as an example of his ability to thrive in the bright lights. There was some speculation that the increased use of his slider, however, may have contributed to the shoulder issue that sidelined him for three months not long after his start against the Yankees. But there’s no denying the efficiency of the field and the way he plays with his entire arsenal, and he felt good about it Thursday night.
After Buehler took 18 swings and a miss in Game 3 — his season high — Yamamoto followed with 16, his third-highest of the year, in just 4.1 innings. That was all the Dodgers needed before turning the game over in their pen, where they held a clear advantage.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza opted to relieve David Peterson despite Quintana struggling on Thursday. Now, with their season on the line, they’ll be the ones to turn to in a do-or-die Game 5, perhaps with less of a leash than Mendoza was willing to give Quintana as his night unfolded Thursday.
3. The MVP of the Dodgers won. But there is much more to this endless list.
With one former MVP out of the lineup, two others have picked up the slack. As the Dodgers gave Freddie Freeman the night off to rest his injured ankle, the rest of the Dodgers took over.
“There were no excuses,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We expected to win this game tonight.”
It started at the top. Shohei Ohtani and Betts each reached base four times, both deep and later ending the deficit with a triple for the cycle.
Ohtani went 17-for-20 on the night going back to the end of the regular season with runners in scoring position, a record in the live ball era. Ironically, it was a very different story with no one to base it on. He was 0-for-22 with the bases empty entering Thursday, when he quickly ended a rare swing by crushing Quintana’s 117.8 mph sinker on a 422-foot home run on the second pitch of the game.
He also got on base three times with a walk, which meant boarding another MVP, which usually made them pay. Betts went 4-for-6 with 4 RBIs, bringing Ohtani home with a double in the fourth and a homer in the sixth.
There was no place for the Mets’ pitchers to rest. Tommy Edman hit a double and scored three runs, October legend Kiké Hernández added two more hits and Muncy reached base in each of his four innings, tying his base run to the MLB postseason record in straight plate appearances. 12 before hitting. the eighth.
“I didn’t even know this,” Muncy told FOX Sports’ Tom Verducci after the game. “That’s great. The biggest thing for me is that it means I’m starting to accept my colleagues.”
Up and down the lineup, the Dodgers have outworked the Mets’ pitchers.
After walking five times in a Game 1 win in the NLDS, the Padres stopped giving the Dodgers free passes, issuing more than three walks a game in any subsequent matchup. Against the Mets, the Dodgers walked at least seven times in each game. During Betts’ two-run home run in the fourth inning, all four of their hits scored runs that brought the lead in the count.
The Dodgers have 16 hits and 24 RBIs with runners in scoring position in the NLCS. The other three teams in the LCS combined for 11 hits and 20 RBIs with runners in scoring position.
“Right now, I’m still enjoying it a little bit, but I’m thinking about Peterson tomorrow,” Roberts said. “Yes, we still have work to do.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the LA Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, raised in Texas, and returned to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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