Dodgers 10 Mets 2 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)
Series status: Dodgers lead 3-1 in best of seven NLCS
WP - Evan Phillips (2-0)
LP - Jose Quintana (0-1)
Seat On The Korner:
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
Today's Seat On The Korner goes to Mookie Betts, who seized multiple opportunities with runners on in front of him. Mookie's dismantling of the Mets began innocently enough, with a one-out single in the third inning with Shohei Ohtani having walked before him. Betts would come around to score on a single by Enrique Hernandez to put the Dodgers ahead 3-1. One inning later, Betts stepped up to the plate with 2 runners on and greeted Mets reliever Jose Butto with a 2-RBI double. Then in the 6th inning, Betts introduced himself to Butto's replacement, Phil Maton, with a 2-run home run to increase the LA lead to 7-2. In all, Betts went 4-6 with 2 singles, a double, a home run, 3 runs scored and 4 RBIs.
Need To Know:
Since the League Championship Series moved to its seven-game format in 1985, the winner of the fourth game has advanced to the World Series 24 times (63.2%) including each of the last three years ('21 Atlanta, '22 Philadelphia, '23 Arizona).
The Mets are now 7-7 in postseason games at Citi Field.
The loss ended the Mets 4-game winning streak in Game 4 of the NLCS (beating Atlanta in '99, St. Louis in '00, St. Louis in '06, and Chicago in '15).
Max Muncy walked in his first three plate appearances, and singled in his fourth, extending his on-base streak to 12. An 8th-inning strikeout put an end to the streak.
Shohei Ohtani led off the game with a home run off the second pitch by Jose Quintana.
Mark Vientos answered right back with a 1st-inning home run off Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
David Peterson will start Game 5 for the Mets, while Game 1 winner Jack Flaherty toes the rubber for Los Angeles.
Turning Point
While Los Angeles, grabbed 1 -0 lead in the 1st inning, and then a 3-1 lead in the 3rd, the Mets showed enough fight to keep things close. That changed in the top of the 4th, when Mets manager Carlos Mendoza summoned reliever Jose Butto to take over for starter Jose Quintana, to face Mookie Betts with runners on first and second and one out. Betts lined Butto's first pitch down the left field line for a 2-RBI double, increasing the Dodgers lead to 5-2. With that one swing, the tough hill that the Mets were trying to climb quickly became a mountain.
Three Keys:
Quinta-no
Despite his recent success, Jose Quintana was ineffective against a tough Dodgers lineup. In 3.1 innings, Quintana gave 5 runs (all earned) on 5 hits and 4 walks, while only striking out two. For Quintana to be effective, he had to incude swings and misses, or weak contact, on pitches out of the strike zone, and as they have all series, the Dodgers showed patience with those offerings.
Walk Away
Once again, Mets pitchers' control problems were a central issue. They issued 9 walks (3 apiece to Ohtani and Muncy, 2 to Teoscar Hernandez, and 1 to Chris Taylor). Four of those walks eventually came around to score. The Mets have now walked 31 Dodgers batters in 35 innings in this series, an LCS record.
0-fer
Despite pounding out 10 hits tonight, the Mets went 0-10 with runners in scoring position and left a total of 12 runners on base. Nine of the 10 Mets hits were singles, with the other being a Mark Vientos home run. The Mets only other run came on a Brandon Nimmo fielder's choice that was originally ruled a double-play and then reversed on a replay challenge. (Despite being hobbled by plantar fasciitis, Nimmo ran hard and was barely able to beat the throw to first.)
Three Mets had multi-hit games: Francisco Lindor, Vientos, and Nimmo, but the team squandered multiple chance to turn those hits into runs. In the 6th inning, just after the Dodgers increased their lead to 7-2, the Mets got a rally going and loaded the bases with no outs. However, a Jose Iglesias strikeout, a Jeff McNeil pinch-hit shallow fly out to center, and a Jesse Winker pinch-hit warning track fly out to right put an end to that rally almost as quickly as it started, and with nothing to show for it. Starling Marte left 2 runners on in the third inning, 2 runners in the 7th, and another 2 in the 9th.
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