The Mets started play with Senga but ended up playing Jenga as they pulled the wrong block and the game came tumbling down.
Jack Flaherty shut down the Mets offense for seven brilliant innings and the Dodgers took advantage of Kodai Senga, who looked like he had only thrown six and a third innings all season long as they coasted to a 9-0 win to take game one of the National League Championship Series before 53,303 at Dodger Stadium.
Flaherty set the tone by setting the Mets down in order with a 14-pitch first inning and then it was the Dodgers’ turn to set an offensive tone.
Senga started off well as he threw two pitches and retired Shohei Ohtani on a ground out to second, but the struggles began after that. “Alot of factors go into it, but the biggest thing might be mechanical error,” Senga said through an interpreter.
Mookie Betts walked on four pitches that were not even close. Freddie Freeman walked on a 3-2 pitch and Teoscar Hernandez walked on four pitches to load the bases.
Senga got Will Smith to fly out to Tyrone Taylor in center but Betts did not try to score so there was some hope that he could get out of the inning, but it was not to be.
Max Muncy jumped on a 2-1 pitch that was up in the zone and lined it into center to score two runs and the Dodgers were off and running. After a wild pitch put runners on second and third, Senga got Kike Hernandez on a comebacker to end the inning.
After the Mets went quietly in the second, Senga walked the leadoff batter, Gavin Lux. Tommy Edman sacrificed him to second to bring up Ohtani, who has been murder with men on base.
The likely NL MVP took the first pitch and lined a single between first and second to score Lux for a 3-0 lead. Manager Carlos Mendoza went to Reid Garrett who got Betts on a line out and then Ohtani was thrown out stealing to end the inning.
Mendoza could see Senga wasn’t fooling any of the Dodgers’ hitters. “He [Senga] was off, he didn’t have it,”Mendoza said. “He didn’t have the life on his fastball and a lot of balls out of hand, you know, non competitive pitches, especially that split. You could tell the way they were taking those pitches, they were balls out of the hand.”
The Dodgers added three more in the fourth off of David Peterson.
Hernandez singled and went to second on another sac bunt. Tommy Edman stroked an RBI single to right and then he scored when Ohtani lined a ball off of the right field wall to make it a 5-0 game. Freeman’s two out, RBI single scored Ohtani and the Dodgers had a comfortable 6-0 lead after four. “Didn’t get the ball to Ohtani where I wanted to on the curveball, left it up and good hitters are gonna do what he did,” Peterson said.
Flaherty had not allowed a hit through four but Jesse Winker led off the fifth with a sharp single as the Mets tried to get something going, but a base running mistake cut short any potential rally.
Jose Iglesias singled to center and Winker could’ve easily made third but, for some reason, he stopped between second and third. Hernandez’ threw into second and Winker tried to get to third, but Lux made the relay throw to Muncy for the first out of the inning. Taylor flied out and Francisco Alvarez lined out to center as the Mets were kept off the board.
“It’s on me,” said Winker who held himself accountable. “Whenever you get on base, you kinda go through like a checklist of plays. Off the bat, I read first and third and then I kinda just got caught in no man’s land and just didn’t want to get thrown out. Just a really bad, bad play by me.”
Flaherty gave up two hits and walked two with six strikeouts in seven shutout innings as the Dodgers continued to compile a record tying scoreless innings streak that began with game three of the NLDS against the Padres.
“He [Flaherty] was getting ahead with his fastball and then the slider, the breaking ball, slow curveball kept us off balance. He was getting ahead and making pitches,” Mendoza said. “Tried to make us chase, which we did the first time through the order. He was just on, he was locating his pitches and he did a good job.”
Daniel Hudson pitched a scoreless eighth and rookie right hander Ben Casparius tossed a scoreless ninth as the Dodgers tied a post season record (1966 Baltimore Orioles in the World Series against the Dodgers) with 33 consecutive scoreless innings.
The Dodgers padded their lead with three more runs in the eighth on a bases clearing double by Betts.
In less than 24 hours, the Mets will need to rely on their resiliency to try and score some runs and get even in game two with Sean Manaea on the hill. The Dodgers did not name a starter and will likely go with a bullpen game as they’ll try to go up two games to none.