October baseball is infamous for its unscripted nature. Just when you think you can predict the outcome, a literal curveball gets thrown at you, flipping the script, turning everything topsy-turvy.
The Los Angeles Dodgers threw a bullpen game with their season on the line in Game 4 of the NLDS against the San Diego Padres.
Pundits, analysts, and experts alike all said it would be the end of the 2024 Dodgers. Instead, eight different relievers combined for a shutout, extending their season and their scoreless inning streak.
Jack Flaherty and the bullpen threw another shutout in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday to tie the MLB record of 33 consecutive scoreless innings in the postseason. So another bullpen game in Game 2 with the same relievers lined up should reproduce the same results, right?
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Wrong.
Francisco Lindor snapped the scoreless streak with a leadoff homer in the first, and Mark Vientos broke the game open with a grand slam in the second, and the New York Mets defeated the Dodgers 7-3 in Game 2 to even the best-of-seven NLCS at one game apiece.
"Everything is great when it works well and guys are throwing up zeros, but you're still facing really good ball clubs," said Dodgers' manager Dave Roberts of the bullpen game in Game 4 of the NLDS compared to Game 2 of the NLCS. "And there is a margin that you have to guard against and kind of really appreciate the cost of the next games, and not forgetting that this isn't a winner-take-all game. It's not a three-game series."
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Ironically, everyone in the extended baseball multiverse spent the last 24 hours praising the Dodgers pitching staff and wondering when or if they would allow another run.
Flaherty said the pitchers were “feeding off each other,” after Game 1. On Monday they got eaten alive by the “OMG” Mets’ hitters.
Lindor, likely the runner-up for MVP in the National League to Dodgers’ designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, hit the Mets sixth leadoff homer of the season, and first in the playoffs since Curtis Granderson in Game 5 of the 2015 World Series, when he crushed a cutter from opener Ryan Brasier sending the ball soaring into the New York bullpen for a 1-0 lead.
LEADOFF LINDOR LASER 💥 #NLCS pic.twitter.com/nDvDghuYti
— MLB (@MLB) October 14, 2024
Los Angeles went to right-hander Landon Knack for length, but instead of keeping the game close, he opened the flood gates, surrendering five runs in the second inning, including a back-breaking grand slam on the ninth pitch he threw to Vientos.
MARK VIENTOS GRAND SLAM
— MLB (@MLB) October 14, 2024
THE @METS ARE RAKING IN LA 🤯 pic.twitter.com/DIQYRNusVa
"I really didn't have a feel for things. I just wasn't sharp today," said Knack of what happened in the second inning. "I wasn't able to execute pitches the way I normally do. I wasn't able to put guys away. I kept leaving things middle."
From that moment on, nothing happened on Monday afternoon that echoed anything that preceded it. The Dodgers scorching hot offense, that had produced 19 runs over their last three games, went dormant. The dominant pitching staff was ineffective and subordinate.
Ohtani, who was 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored in Game 1 was hitless with two strikeouts in Game 2.
"I thought he didn't look comfortable versus Manaea," said Dave Roberts of what he saw from Ohtani at the plate today. "The heater is away. You can see he was just kind of trying to keep the ball away from Shohei."
Sean Manaea, who entered the game with nearly an 8.00 ERA against the Dodgers in his career, silenced the most-lethal lineup in the Majors for the better part of five innings.
"He's a really good pitcher," said Mookie Betts of Manaea on Monday. "He's been pitching really well lately and has a lot of confidence. He threw the ball well again today. We lost. It sucks. I don't think anyone here was expecting them to roll over. We have to turn the page and prepare for Game 3 now."
Manaea, who changed his arm angle in the offseason, delivering his best season since 2019 with the Oakland Athletics, allowed three runs (two earned), on two hits with four walks and seven strikeouts in five innings of work.
Sean Manaea revamped his delivery to throw from a lower arm angle.
— MLB (@MLB) October 14, 2024
It seems to be working 👀 pic.twitter.com/TR49LsfJYu
Maybe it was the early start time that did the Dodgers in. The Mets, who are still on Eastern Standard Time are accustomed to afternoon starts. Los Angeles hasn’t had one since the final game of the regular season on September 29th.
The Dodgers have spent the past decade monopolizing the Majors with a businesslike attitude. Stoic and forceful, less emotion, and more determination than their counterparts, they looked lackadaisical and lost in Game 2, like the drowsy sleeper who keeps hitting snooze on their alarm clock.
It took five innings for the Dodgers to finally awaken from their slumber. Max Muncy put the boys in blue on the board with a solo shot in the fifth inning, his 12th career postseason homer, tied for second on the Dodgers all-time list.
Max Muncy puts the @Dodgers on the board with a solo shot #NLCS pic.twitter.com/bTVXB5B81P
— MLB (@MLB) October 14, 2024
Los Angeles cut the lead in half thanks to a pair of walks and some bad defense by the Mets.
Tommy Edman drove in two runs when a ball bounced off the glove of first baseman Pete Alonso, but the rally ended when Enrique Hernández hit into a double-play with the bases loaded two batters later.
The @Mets get a HUGE double play to get out of the jam! #NLCS pic.twitter.com/gRxJvnxMru
— MLB (@MLB) October 14, 2024
Hernández had another opportunity to tie the game with runners on second and third in the bottom of the eighth, but he popped out to shallow right field to end the inning.
The Dodgers were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in Game 2 and left a total of ten runners on base in the loss.
"We're never out of the fight," said Dodgers' catcher Will Smith of the missed opportunities.. "We were one big swing away from tying the game or taking the lead. As long as we keep giving ourselves opportunities like that we're going to be okay."
The Dodgers better sound the alarm when they head to Citi Field on Wednesday for Game 3, or they will be in danger of falling behind in this series. That’s not something they want to do against the team that had the most ninth inning comebacks in baseball this season.
Before Game 1 of the series, Muncy said his team needed to keep the fire and intensity that allowed them to win back-to-back elimination games to advance past the powerful Padres. But instead of fire and intensity, it was lethargy and fragility on display in Game 2.
The Mets had much better at-bats than the Dodgers, saw more pitches, showed more fight, and overall looked like the better team on the diamond. Oh, what a difference a day makes.
Momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher, and the Dodgers didn’t have one.
Their starting rotation is in shambles, injured beyond recognition, with only one pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, still standing from the Opening Day rotation, and even he missed nearly three months of the season with a rotator cuff injury.
Now the Dodgers will turn to the inconsistent, but battle-tested Walker Buehler in Game 3. Coming off his second Tommy John surgery, Buehler was 1-6 with a 5.38 ERA in 16 games this season. He allowed six runs in the second inning against San Diego in Game 3 of the NLDS. Manager Dave Roberts believes in him and is banking on his past history of big game performances.
“I like Walker on the road,” said Roberts. “I talked to Walker yesterday, and he’s obviously never lacked for confidence, but he’s in a good place physically, and he certainly lives for the big moments. What better way to change the bad taste that you had in the regular season for him to have a dominant postseason, and he’s on a heater right now.”
Whether it’s a heater or a luke-warmer, however it looks, the Dodgers need Buehler to deliver a gem in Game 3. If so, they’re back on-line with Yamamoto going in Game 4 and Flaherty on regular rest in Game 5.
It’s funny how fast things can change in a playoff series. 24 hours ago, the Dodgers looked unbeatable, now they’ve lost home-field advantage and their pitching staff has been quelled. But tomorrow is another day, and another opportunity to flip the script. The rest of this series is still unwritten.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven NLCS between the Mets and Dodgers is scheduled for 5:08 PM PT on Wednesday, October 16th at Citi Field in Queens, NY. The game will air live on FS1.
