It’s hard to watch the NLCS and not think the Mets are punching above their weight class.
The Dodgers have dominated virtually every step of the way — with the exception of New York’s Game 2 victory — as the outcomes of the three Los Angeles victories have not been particularly close. Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts are spraying balls all over the yard and the Mets bats have seemingly gone cold.
However, the magical Mets are hoping to pull one more rabbit out of their hat staring down the barrel of a 3-1 series deficit against the star-studded Dodgers and facing elimination on Friday.
“If you have no belief, you shouldn’t be here,” said Francisco Lindor. “You gotta believe, you gotta fight for what you want, you gotta fight for it. At the end of the day, it comes down to one day at a time and executing. We have an amazing opportunity to win a big league game in the National League Championship Series. So we got to come out, we got to execute and play the game better than they do.
“If we win tomorrow, then we learn from it and move on.”
The Mets have been incredibly resilient this season. From battling back after a rough start to the regular season and massive comeback wins in the postseason, the Amazins have been on their last leg before and they’ve responded every time.
“With having our backs against the walls pretty consistently throughout the year, it’s taught us a lot about our character and who we are in our identity as a team,” said Pete Alonso. “We’re a pretty resilient bunch, we’ve had to pretty much answer the bell all year. And, it’s no different now, it’s no different in the playoffs.
“Losing the way we have at home is that fun? Is that great? No. It’s not. We need to be better but, I think that over the course of this series there’s a lot of opportunities to learn from and we have to apply those lessons [Friday] and moving forward.”
While the Mets do have plenty of punchbacks to cite from, the Dodgers appear to be a different beast. Jack Flaherty — who carved up the Mets bats in Game 1 tossing seven shutout innings — will take the ball in Game 5 on Friday with the opportunity to send his team to the World Series. The Mets know they have their work cut out for them.
“You’ve got to give them credit because that’s a really good lineup and they can do a lot of different things,” Carlos Mendoza said. “This is a team that controls the strike zone as well as anybody in the league. Not only do they do that, but when they force you in the zone they can do some damage. …
“It’s not only Ohtani, it’s Mookie and Teoscar [Hernandez] and it’s Freddie [Freeman], even though he wasn’t there and the bottom of the lineup. And you’ve got Muncy there, too, and Kiké [Hernandez] doing things that Kiké does this time of the year. I think it’s a deep lineup, but the biggest thing is they’re going to force you in the zone. They’re not going to chase. When you do come in the zone you have to execute. Because if not, they’re going to make you pay.”
The Dodgers have certainly made the Mets pay as they’ve outscored them 30-9 across the four games this series. If the Mets want to keep the magic going, they’re going to need more than Grimace and their playoff pumpkin on Friday night.
