by Megan Garcia
A lot has changed since the Dodgers and Mets last met in the postseason in 2015. Even more has changed since these two teams faced each other this past May.
Now, as the last two teams standing in the National League, they begin their October battle in the National League Championship Series on Sunday.
“We saw these guys earlier. They’re a completely different team than we saw,” said manager Dave Roberts said. “They’re playing considerably better. (Francisco) Lindor is back to being Frankie. They’ve just got a lot of confidence.”
Adversity has defined these teams in 2024. The Mets were 11 games under .500 when Dodgers swept them in late May. The East Coast team used that series as fuel them to turn their season around.
On the other side, the Dodgers endured the loss of Mookie Betts to a broken hand and Max Muncy to an oblique strain during the regular season and used 40 pitchers to get through it.
With the World Series in sight, this best-of-seven series will be a battle between two rosters filled with dynamic players — particularly on the offensive side.
The Mets have scored 38 runs this postseason over seven games (5.4 runs per game).
“You’re expecting the best, and at this point they’ve been really good,” said Jack Flaherty, the Dodgers Game 1 starter.
Flaherty was an emergency option out of the bullpen in Game 5 of the NLDS, but the brilliance of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the bullpen saved Flaherty for the Mets. The Dodger pitching staff knocked out the Padres with 24 consecutive scoreless innings, the longest postseason streak in franchise history.
Flaherty’s history of pitching deeper in games will hopefully provide some breathing room for the relief core, particularly with the loss of an injured Alex Vesia and the possibility of another bullpen game. Flaherty pitched 5 1/3 innings, surrendered four earned runs on five hits with one walk on 90 pitches in his only start against the Padres.
Kodai Senga will start Game 1 for the Mets, with Sean Manaea scheduled for Game 2.
Senga is expected to throw three innings in his third start of the year. Injuries limited the right-hander to only one regular season start. He landed a spot in the Mets postseason rotation and pitched two innings on 31 pitches in his Game 2 NLDS start against the Phillies.
“A saying we’ve always kind of had when you’re approaching a guy that may not give a ton of innings or maybe it’s an opener or any number of things is he’s going to go as long as we let him go,” Max Muncy said. “If we put together a bunch of really poor at-bats, they’re probably going to keep running him out there. If we put together a bunch of good at-bats and score some runs, get a lot of traffic on the bases, we probably won’t see him too many times.”
The Mets right-hander knows the Dodger lineup will pose a threat at the plate and is keeping the details of his approach to a minimum.
“A lot of great hitters in the lineup,” Senga said. “If I leave a ball over the plate, they’re probably going to hammer it.”
The Mets bullpen has the highest ERA (4.01) among the remaining postseason teams as they’ve advanced through two rounds. But Edwin Diaz — one of the best closers in baseball — leads the bullpen with seven strikeouts over 3 1/3 innings in three postseason appearances. Diaz’s 38.9% strikeout ratio ranked in the top 1% in Major League Baseball during the regular season.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Teoscar Hernández said. “The Mets have a really good team. They’re playing excellent baseball right now. We just need to go out there and not think about the opponent, just think about what we need to do.”
The Mets — the №6 seed — knocked out the Phillies and Brewers from the postseason. Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos have led the offense to propel New York to their first NLCS appearance since 2022.
Vientos leads all batters with 12 hits this postseason, while Lindor and Alonso have shined in clutch moments. They have collectively driven in 19 combined runs in October.
“We’ve got to play good baseball,” Roberts said. “I just don’t see it much different outside of the fact that they’re two different ball clubs, but we have to come with the same intensity, focus and energy that we had this last series.”
NLCS: Dodgers, Mets overcame adversity and now meet at the crossroads was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.