NEW YORK — The Los Angeles Dodgers are one victory away from returning to the World Series for the first time since winning it all in 2020 after a 10-2 drubbing of the New York Mets in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.
The Dodgers are up 3-1 in this series after demolishing the Mets these past two nights at Citi Field. The lineup chewed up and spat out Mets starter Jose Quintana and the assorted relievers behind him. Shohei Ohtani set the tone with a leadoff home run — the first of four runs he scored on Thursday. Mookie Betts supplied a two-run double in the fourth and a two-run homer in the sixth. Max Muncy set a single-season postseason record by reaching base in 12 consecutive plate appearances.
The scoring overshadowed another excellent performance from the Dodgers’ pitching staff. Yoshinobu Yamamoto permitted two runs before exiting with one out in the fifth, giving way to the team’s high-leverage duo of Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen.
The Dodgers can clinch the National League pennant in Game 5 on Friday afternoon. Jack Flaherty, who fired seven scoreless innings in Game 1, is expected to take the ball for Los Angeles. The Mets are likely to counter with some combination of Kodai Senga and David Peterson. Senga could not complete the second inning in Game 1; Peterson permitted three runs in 2 1/3 innings.
The Mets have been unable in this series to recapture their penchant for late-game breakthroughs. The lineup loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, infusing the 43,882 fans in Flushing with hope of a revival. Phillips and Treinen combined to snuff out the threat.
Max Muncy shares a record with Mr. October
Injuries curtailed Muncy’s extended run as one of the more feared hitters in the National League. The trouble started in 2021 when Muncy finished 10th in MVP voting but a gnarly late-season elbow injury kept him out of the postseason. But when healthy, he’s proved vital.
Muncy has emerged as a potential frontrunner for the NLCS MVP, with home runs in Games 2 and 3 amid what is now a historic run.
In Game 4 on Thursday, he reached base for the 12th consecutive time with a single in the seventh inning to extend the major-league record for a single postseason he’d set earlier in the game. Billy Hatcher (with the Reds in 1990) and David Ortiz (Red Sox in 2007) shared the previous mark by reaching base in 10 consecutive plate appearances over a single postseason.
Additionally, Muncy’s 12 straight times on base tied the overall postseason mark set by Reggie Jackson. Mr. October’s streak extended over the 1977 and 1978 postseasons.
Max Muncy has now reached base in 12 straight plate appearances 😤
He’s tied with Reggie Jackson for the most consecutive #Postseason plate appearances reaching safely. pic.twitter.com/6zdDXRWuSz
— MLB (@MLB) October 18, 2024
Muncy finally made an out in the eighth inning by striking out swinging against left-hander Danny Young.
Muncy entered Thursday night having reached safely in eight consecutive plate appearances dating back to his Game 2 home run off of Mets lefty Sean Manaea. He reached all five times in Game 3, with his solo home run in the ninth inning being an exclamation point in a blowout win.
“Last night was a clinic in how you conduct at-bats,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Thursday afternoon. “I don’t think he swung at a ball all last night, which is pretty remarkable. … It’s just a presence because in the lineup, he’s a threat. And that matters.”
Muncy walked in each of his first three plate appearances in Game 4. With his third, against José Buttó, he reached for the 11th consecutive time to break the MLB record shared by Hatcher and Ortiz. The previous record-holders each won a World Series in their season.
The Mets’ starting pitching ran out of gas
During the Mets’ final couple of months of the season, they relied heavily on strong starting pitching. It came with a catch. The more the Mets’ veteran starters, coming off injuries and shorter workloads a year ago, supplied quality outings, the more the fear grew that there’d be a tax to pay. And the due date popped up in mid-October.
The Mets’ path to winning in the postseason included camouflaging their shallow bullpen by trusting their starters to pitch deeper into games than most pitchers would in October. It hasn’t worked against the Dodgers, a lineup loaded with stars and an overall carrying tool of plate discipline. Jose Quintana, 35 years old and more than 100 innings over his total from when he was a year younger, never had much chance. The Dodgers negated his style of working the edges, leading to four walks, five hits and five runs in just 3 1/3 innings.
Through four games, no Mets starter has recorded an out in the sixth inning. Funny thing about that: On the Dodgers’ side, only Game 1 starter Jack Flaherty accomplished the feat, pitching seven innings. But that’s part of the difference between the Mets and the Dodgers. Los Angeles can win in other ways, including by leaning on the leverage arms looming in their bullpen. It wasn’t just the Mets’ rotation that has seemingly run out of gas in this series — position players like Jose Iglesias and Francisco Alvarez haven’t done much, either — but that unit’s struggles have been acutely felt.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto maximized his slider
Yamamoto’s slider usage has been a subject of intrigue throughout his rookie season. It’s a pitch he used infrequently in Japan and used somewhat sparingly during his first few months in the majors.
Then came his finest start of the season, in June, when he threw 13 sliders amid seven scoreless innings at Yankee Stadium. He left his next start early and missed months with a strained rotator cuff.
Whether there’s a connection or not — those with the Dodgers have pointed more toward Yamamoto’s elevated velocity that night as a potential cause for the injury — the slider was largely shelved outside of big moments. Opposing hitters went 2-for-19 against it (.158) with a 35.7 percent whiff rate during the regular season.
Thursday night, Yamamoto threw a career-most 14 of them, including a heavy dose to upstart slugger Mark Vientos, as he looked to generate swing-and-miss. The pitch would be the putaway offering on four of his eight strikeouts on the night.
Yamamoto largely delivered in his 13 allotted outs, allowing two runs (one on a Vientos homer) over 73 pitches in what will likely be his only outing this series against a team that courted him in free agency this past winter.
(Top photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
