As former Mets manager Yogi Berra supposedly once said, it ain’t over ’till it’s over.
It’s not over for the Mets after a 12-6 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the NLCS. The Amazins’ staved off elimination Friday night at Citi Field in front of a sellout crowd, finally coming through with timely hitting and some gutsy pitching performances.
“The first of three chapters is done and now we’ve got the second one coming up,” said outfielder Brandon Nimmo. “This is what we’ve done, and this is what this team continues to do.”
Jesse Winker, playing in place of J.D. Martinez at DH, went 2-for-3 with an RBI triple, reaching base four times. Starling Marte, who hit behind him in the sixth spot, went 4-for-5 with three doubles and three RBI and Francisco Alvarez went 3-for-4 with an RBI double.
Pete Alonso reached base four times, putting the Mets on the board in the bottom of the first with a three-run homer off right-hander Jack Flaherty, golfing a low slider up and over the center field fence into the 7 Line cheering section.
“It’s the magic of the postseason,” Alonso said. “I’m just happy I squared it up.”
Despite the score, it wasn’t easy for the Mets to escape this one, and it won’t be easy to win two more times in Los Angeles. The Dodgers lineup continues to be a bad match for the Mets pitching staff. They take a lot of pitches and force the Mets to throw in the zone, which they struggled to do.
Andy Pages hit two homers for the visitors, a solo shot off David Peterson in the fourth and a three-run moonshot off Reed Garrett in the fifth that cut the Mets’ lead to 10-5. Mookie Betts led off the sixth with a solo homer off Ryne Stanek to make it 10-6.
But every time the Dodgers scored, the Mets responded.
“We needed to continue to add on because we saw it,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “They’re not going to shut down, they’re going to continue to put pressure on you. That’s a really good offense there, and I’m proud of the guys.”
Peterson faced traffic on the bases right from the jump, retiring three in a row after giving up hits to Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts before getting the first out of the game. The left-hander mitigated the damage effectively, holding arguably the toughest lineup in baseball to two earned runs on six hits over 3 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out three in his first start of the postseason.
Taking Peterson out of the bullpen and giving him the start proved to be the right call by the Mets. He kept Los Angeles at bay while the Mets gave him some early run support. The Dodgers cut it to 3-1 with a run scored on a wild pitch in the second, but the Mets countered with a five-run third inning to go up 8-1.
Facing Flaherty for the second time in a week, the Mets took eight runs off of him over three innings.
“We didn’t chase his secondary pitches,” Mendoza said. “We know he’s got that slider and the knuckle curve, and he’s going to try to make us chase and we didn’t do that today. When he came in the zone with his fastball, we were ready. That’s the key.”
It’s almost like the Mets took a page from the Dodgers’ book with their approach at the plate.
Pages took Peterson deep in the top of the fourth, and once again, the middle and bottom parts of the Mets’ order responded in the bottom of the inning, this time against right-hander Brent Honeywell. Alonso was hit by a pitch and came home on a triple to right field by Winker with none out. Winker later came around to score on a fly ball by Jeff McNeil to make it 10-2.
Winker scored again in the bottom of the sixth on another sacrifice fly by McNeil, this time increasing the Mets’ lead to 11-6.
“The most important thing was the team effort continuing to add on, whether it’s manufacturing a run or someone having a big hit,” Alonso said. “It was just unbelievable at-bats up and down the lineup.”
Finally, Stanek retired the side in order in the top of the seventh. He got seven outs for the Mets, all of them crucial, setting the stage for Edwin Diaz to record the final six outs.
“Ryne was just lights-out and Sugar was electric at the end,” Alonso said. “Everyone who threw the ball tonight did their job.”
After Diaz retired the side in order in the top of the eighth, the Mets scored once more in the bottom of the inning, getting an anxious crowd excited once again. They remained on their feet for the top of the ninth as Diaz pitched around a two-out single to send the Mets to Los Angeles for another shot at redemption.
“That’s what this is all about,” Alonso said. “When presented an opportunity, how do you respond and how do you capitalize? And we’ve responded and answered the bell every single step of the way this year. It’s been tremendous.”