by Cary Osborne
The Dodgers are trying to pull this off with bullpen games, one of their best relievers (Alex Vesia) out of the National League Championship Series, three starting pitchers, a first baseman (Freddie Freeman) limping his way out of the batter’s box each time he puts the ball in play and some other banged up pieces — including now Gavin Lux (who didn’t play Monday due to a hip issue).
The Dodgers did fine in Game 1 of the NLCS, but an early Mets barrage against the lead pitchers in the bullpen game, no hits from the meat of the LA lineup and missed chances were costly in the Dodgers’ 7–3 loss in Game 2 on Monday at Dodger Stadium.
Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor led off the game with a homer off Ryan Brasier. The next inning, Mets third baseman Mark Vientos hit a grand slam off Landon Knack.
That one-two had the Dodgers seeing stars early and it was a lead the Dodgers never overcame in their 7–3 loss.
They now head to New York with the series tied 1–1.
“You expect it to be a long series. They’re good,” said Mookie Betts. “They didn’t make it here by luck. I’m going to give them their credit, they’re a good baseball team. We are too. We expect it to be a long series and a tough series.”
The Dodgers have to believe the one through five in the order — Shohei Ohtani, Betts, Teoscar Hernández, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith — will not go a combined 0-for-19 again in this series.
They’ll bank on being better with runners in scoring position.
The Dodgers had the go-ahead run in the batter’s box in the sixth inning and the tying run in the box in the eighth inning — both times it being postseason hero Kiké Hernández.
Hernández didn’t have the postseason magic on Monday, though. Each time making the final out of the inning.
But they clawed back from a 6–0 deficit in the second inning to be in the game, eventually waiting out Mets starter Sean Manaea, whose tricky arm slot gave the Dodgers fits over five innings.
Max Muncy hit a solo home run against Manaea in the fifth.
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The Dodgers stayed away from their highest-leverage relievers.
For Game 3, the Dodgers will have Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen and Michael Kopech on four days’ rest. Daniel Hudson will be on two days’ rest.
Brent Honeywell is a big reason for all of that.
The right-hander, who was designated for assignment twice this season (including the Dodgers on Aug. 18) and left off the NLDS roster as he recovered from a cracked fingernail, gave the Dodgers three shutout innings. Honeywell might not have been on the NLCS roster had it not been for Vesia’s intercostal injury.
It was Honeywell’s first Major League postseason game.
The Dodgers will go with Walker Buehler to start Game 3. Buehler has given the Dodgers at least five innings in each of his last six starts, including Game 3 of the NLDS.
“I think as far as kind of where we’re at, it never feels good losing,” said manager Dave Roberts. “But to feel you’ve got your leverage guys ready to go for the next three games, I feel really good about that. So it was as least costly as it could be because of what Honeywell did, Banda, (Edgardo) Henriquez did. So that was certainly helpful. And offensively we’ve got a chance to see their guys, their leverage guys and force some up-downs. And I think that was beneficial too.”
Included in that was Mets closer Edwin Díaz, who recorded the final four outs of the game.
“Today is over with,” Betts said. “We have to flush it. Figure out what we need to do in Game 3.”
NLCS: The Dodgers and Mets now head to New York with the series at 1–1 was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.