NEW YORK — Put a cork in it.
The tarp taped above the lockers in the visitors’ clubhouse at Citi Field was never put to use. The champagne stayed on ice. Whatever visions the Dodgers might have had about closing out the New York Mets in five games and celebrating Friday night had to be stored away in the overhead space for the flight back to Los Angeles.
So dominant in the series opener, Jack Flaherty was a different pitcher in Game 5. The Mets scored eight times in the first three innings, putting the Dodgers so far in a hole that even two home runs from Andy Pages and one from Mookie Betts couldn’t dig them out. The Mets extended the National League Championship Series to a sixth game with a 12-6 victory in Game 5.
The Dodgers still hold the advantage, 3-2, in the best-of-seven series. But now they will try to close it out with a bullpen game – the omnipresent pumpkin spice of the 2024 postseason – in Game 6 on Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.
This series is still looking for its first close game. The Dodgers rolled into Game 5 with a plus-21 run differential – the highest through four games of a series in postseason history. Only one of the first four games was decided by less than eight runs (the Mets’ 7-3 victory in Game 2).
The Mets did their best to keep that tilted theme going against Flaherty.
The Dodgers right-hander allowed just two hits in seven scoreless innings in Game 1. But his fastball velocity was down this time. He averaged 91.2 mph on his 26 four-seam fastballs, down 2 mph from his season average. He couldn’t find the strike zone consistently with anything and when he did the Mets hit it hard – nine balls with exit velocities of 98 mph or higher.
Pete Alonso landed the first big blow, a three-run home run in the first inning after the Dodgers wasted a scoring opportunity in the top of the inning.
A single by Shohei Ohtani and a double by Mookie Betts (when right fielder Starling Marte butchered his slicing line drive) put runners at second and third with no outs. But Ohtani held at third when Teoscar Hernandez grounded out to shortstop – during the FOX in-game interview Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called it “a brain cramp.” Freddie Freeman lined out and Tommy Edman struck out and the Dodgers came away with nothing.
Flaherty stranded a runner at third in the second inning, but the Mets beat him up in the third inning as Roberts sat on his hands, opting against a quick hook to keep the game close.
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The Mets sent nine batters to the plate in the inning. Flaherty walked the first two batters and gave up four hits, including a two-run double to Starling Marte, RBI singles to Francisco Alvarez and Brandon Nimmo and an RBI triple by Francisco Lindor.
At 8-2, Roberts pulled Flaherty and went to Brent Honeywell Jr., marshaling his relief resources for Game 6. Honeywell had given the Dodgers three scoreless innings in a similar save-the-pen situation in Game 2. Like Flaherty, he couldn’t reprise his success.
Honeywell gave up four runs in 4⅔ innings – the longest outing of his major-league career – before Roberts pulled him with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
That negated the Dodgers’ attempts at a comeback. Pages hit a solo home run in the fourth inning and a three-run homer in the fifth. Betts led off the sixth with a solo shot. But the Dodgers had just one infield hit the rest of the way.
More to come on this story.