The Mets are being outplayed and outmatched by the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series and there seems to be nothing they can do about it.
The Dodgers’ powerful offense was functioning on all cylinders as they embarrassed the Mets with a 10-2 win in game 4 of the National League Championship Series before a sellout crowd of 43,882 at Citifield.
The Dodgers took a 3-1 lead in the series to move within one win of the National League Pennant and put the Mets on the brink of elimination as they will attempt to keep their season going in game five Friday afternoon.
“It’s one more game and you try and go 1 and 0,” Brandon Nimmo said. “We’ve had our backs against the wall this whole time, this isn’t new to us. It’s very real, you lose one game and we’re done.”
Led by Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts at the top of the order, the Dodgers drew 9 walks and pounded out 12 hits. Ohtani (1 for 3, HR, RBI, 3 BBs, 4 runs scored) and Betts (4 for 6, HR, four runs batted in, three runs scored) combined to go 5 for 9 with two home runs, seven runs scored and five runs batted in.
Tommy Edman was 2 for 5 with two doubles and three RBIs while Max Muncy’s record streak of reaching base in 12 consecutive plate appearances finally came to an end. Muncy, who set a single season post season record and tied Reggie Jackson’s all time mark (Jackson did it over two post seasons), walked his first three times up and singled before the streak ended when he was called out on strikes in the eighth inning.
The Mets offense created some chances, but they have failed to get the clutch hits that propelled this post season run against a Dodgers pitching staff that has dominated the playoffs.
The Mets left 12 men on base, were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position in game four and are 4 for 25 with RISP in the series.
“Today, we have people on base multiple times and we didn’t come through,” said Francisco Lindor, who was one of three Mets with multi hit games but never came to bat with a runner in scoring position. “You gotta execute with people on base and help your pitching staff.”
It really hasn’t mattered because the Mets pitchers have walked 31 Dodgers batters in four games of the series and they haven’t been able to keep their offense down.
Ohtani wasted no time in getting the Dodgers on the board. The likely NL MVP drove the second pitch of the game from losing pitcher Jose Quintana into the bullpen area for a quick 1-0 lead.
“When he [Ohtani] goes out there, first at bat of the game and hits it like that, obviously a good feeling for them. We knew that wasn’t going to beat us but we couldn’t just stop it,” Manager Carlos Mendoza said.
Mark Vientos provided an answer in the bottom of the first when he homered off Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto into right center field to tie the game at one but that was the only real highlight provided by the Mets all night long. For the Mets young third baseman, it was his fourth post season home run.
The Dodgers retook the lead with two runs in the third.
With one out, Ohtani walked and Mookie Betts singled to put runners on first and second. Quintana struck out Teoscar Hernandez but Edman lined a double down the left field line to score Ohtani and then Betts scored on an infield single by Kike Hernandez as the Dodgers took a 3-1 lead.
The Mets appeared to get something going in their half of the third with the Franciscos, Alvarez and Lindor, setting the table with back to back singles.
Vientos struck out but Pete Alonso walked on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases.
Nimmo hit what appeared to be an inning ending 4-6-3 double play but the Mets challenged the ruling at first. The call was overturned as Alvarez scored to cut the lead to 3-2.
The Dodgers added two more in the fourth on a two run double by Betts. In the sixth, Betts slammed a two run homer off of Mets reliever Phil Maton to make it 7-2.
The Mets tried to mount a rally when they had the bases loaded and nobody out in the sixth. Jose Iglesias struck out for the first out of the inning.
Jeff McNeil pinch hit for Harrison Bader and hit a fly ball to center but Nimmo, who was on third and is dealing with plantar fasciitis, did not try to score.
Jesse Winker was sent up to pinch hit for Alvarez and the Dodgers went to Blake Treinen to replace Evan Phillips, who had relieved Yamamoto in the fifth.
Winker gave the sellout crowd a rush when he lined an 0-1 pitch to deep right field but Betts hauled it in and the Mets were kept off the board.
The failure to score with a golden opportunity became their final chance to get back in the game and it typified the Mets futility in this series and demonstrated the Dodgers strength with their bullpen.
The Dodgers looked like the “Gas House Gorillas” in the “Baseball Bugs” cartoon when they batted around and scored three runs on four hits in the eighth against Mets reliever Danny Young with Edman’s second double of the game driving in two.
The only saving grace was when Ohtani was caught looking at a third strike to mercifully end the inning.
So this Mets magical run is on life support and they’ll look to David Peterson to try and extend the series and send it back to Los Angeles.
“We have an amazing opportunity and that’s winning a big league game, National League Championship Series,” Lindor said. “We gotta come out, we gotta execute and we gotta play the game better than they do.”
Pete Alonso could potentially be playing his last game as a Met but he didn’t want to think about that and was his usual optimistic self after the game. “We’re a super resilient bunch and we’ve had to pretty much answer the bell all year and it’s no different now,” he said.
The Dodgers look like an unstoppable juggernaut right now so it’s asking a lot of the Mets to even win game five, but they won’t quit and they don’t quit.
“We never give up until it’s over so we’re gonna keep going and if we come back from this, it’s gonna be a heckuva story,” Nimmo said.