LOS ANGELES – One lopsided loss in the National League Championship Series was never going to be enough to derail these New York Mets. Remember, they were 11 games under .500 as recently as June 2, didn’t get over the break-even mark for good until July 10 and only clinched a post-season berth in Game No. 161, thanks to a dramatic late rally that’s become their October hallmark. The Game 1 meltdown versus the Los Angeles Dodgers wasn’t going to leave them shook.
“This group is tough,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “And we continue to find ways.”
Led by Francisco Lindor, their centre-of-gravity star shortstop, rotation pillar Sean Manaea and ascendant force Mark Vientos, the Mets did just that in a nervy 7-3 victory Monday, a game that in some ways was the inverse of the opener that ended 17 hours earlier.
Whereas Kodai Senga came undone to begin New York’s bullpen day while Jack Flaherty shoved in the opener, this time, opener Ryan Brasier got his team off on the wrong foot, serving up Lindor’s leadoff homer while Manaea kept the game on lock.
Landon Knack, whom manager Dave Roberts expected “to take down most of the outs,” took over in the second, gave up Tyrone Taylor’s RBI double and after a two-out intentional walk to Lindor that loaded the bases, served up Vientos’ back-breaking grand slam.
In the blink of an eye, the Mets were up 6-0, the Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,926 was stunned and Manaea allowed only Max Muncy’s solo shot through the first five innings.
“It just kickstarts everything,” Manaea said of Lindor’s homer. “It’s a new day, a new game and you’ve got to go out there and attack it like that. … You can’t really start off any better way and it just set the tone for the rest of the game.”
But unlike Game 1, when the Dodgers kept adding on for a breathe-easy finish, Game 2 very nearly came off the rails for the Mets, who needed some deft bullpen work to bring this one home, especially in the sixth.
Manaea walked Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez to open that inning before the usually sure-handed Jose Iglesias misplayed a tricky Freddie Freeman chopper that should have been a double-play ball, loading the bases instead.
On came Phil Maton, who after popping up Will Smith, gave up a two-run single to Tommy Edman to make it a 6-3 game. Then after a Muncy walk, he induced a Kiké Hernandez double play started by Vientos, who bobbled the ball before recovering.
Maton issued a one-out walk to Shohei Ohtani before Ryne Stanek retired Betts and Hernandez to end that frame. Stanek then got the first two outs of the eighth before a single by Edman and a walk to Muncy brought in Edwin Diaz, who retired Kiké Hernandez to end that threat, and then, after Starling Marte’s RBI single made it 7-3, came back out and finished the job in the ninth.
The final sent the teams to Queens even 1-1 in the best-of-seven, with Walker Buehler slated to start Wednesday’s Game 3 versus Luis Severino.
“They continue to believe,” said Mendoza. “They know that after a bad game, there’s always an opportunity the next day. That’s the case here where we didn’t play well (Sunday) but we know what we need to do to make some adjustments.”
Those adjustments started with Lindor, who put the heat on Brasier and the Dodgers’ pitchers right out of the gate, fouling off four straight pitches before hammering an 89.7 m.p.h. cutter over the wall in right.
“I was just trying to have a quality at-bat and get the guys going,” said Lindor, who added that “pressure is a blessing” in the post-season, and that “you have to stay within yourself, go out there and try to execute.”
The degree to which he was dialled in prompted Roberts to walk him intentionally in the second, a fateful choice that brought up Vientos with the bases loaded. He fouled off five pitches from Knack before turning on a 95.1 m.p.h. heater over the heart of the plate.
“I took it personal, I want to be up there during that at-bat for sure,” Vientos said of the free pass to Lindor. “At that point, I was just, let me simplify the game, just get one run in, get a walk – whatever I can do to add another run to the score. And luckily I hit a bomb there and it went over the fence.”
Manaea likely gets through six innings if Iglesias turns the double play on Freeman’s ball in the sixth, extending a remarkable evolution into a dominant starter poised to cash in should he opt out of his $26-million, two-year deal, as appears likely.
When they signed him, the Mets expected him to be “a really good left-handed pitcher that’s been through a lot the past couple of years,” said Mendoza, “but, man, since he makes those adjustments, lowering his arm slot, he’s been unbelievable. And he continues to get better.”
He struck out seven in his five-plus frames but walked four, as the Dodgers simply didn’t relent, even though the Mets’ early damage was too much to overcome.
Therein lies the peril of a bullpen day, when one off day can upend everyone else’s work, even if they’ve become a useful, perhaps even essential tool for teams with rotation injuries, as opposed to the act of a last resort they’d long been.
“It’s just all how the roster’s constructed at that point in time,” said Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson, who won a World Series in 2019 with the starter-driven Washington Nationals. “Obviously, we’ve had some catastrophic injuries in the rotation this year, so our young guys that have been in the minor leagues have come up and really played a big part in our season — out of the bullpen, in the starting rotation, up and down. … In 2019, with the Nats, we had five horses in the rotation that remained relatively healthy throughout the season and playoffs. You’re going to ride those guys if you have them.
“You have to ride your studs. We’re going to do that with the guys we have available, and at this point, if the bullpen is the fourth starter, so be it. Let’s ride ourselves and get out there and get another W.”
So far in the NLCS, the W’s belong to the starters, the L’s are on the bullpens and the leverage is only turning up in what’s now a best-of-five.