QUEENS, NY — The Mets’ postseason chariot is turning into a pumpkin, and not Pete Alonso’s playoff pumpkin, either.
Mookie Betts went 4-for-6 with a double, home run, and four RBI, while Shohei Ohtani homered, walked three times, and scored four runs in the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-2 NLCS Game 4 win over the Mets at Citi Field to take a 3-games-to-1 series lead and move to within one victory of the 2024 World Series.
It is only the second time in Mets postseason history (103 games) that they allowed 10 runs — tied for the most ever yielded in a game.
“That’s what makes that team such a good team,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It’s not just Ohtani. It’s Mookie, it’s [Teoscar Hernandez], it’s [Freddie Freeman]… It’s a deep lineup, but the biggest thing is that they’re going to force you in the zone. They’re not going to chase. When you do come in the zone, you have to execute or they’ll make you pay.”
The Mets have one more home game to keep their season alive. Game 5 is on Friday evening, with the first pitch scheduled for 5:08 p.m. ET.
New York bats were held in check for a second-straight night and the third time in four NLCS games, thanks to a litany of missed opportunities. The Mets left 12 men on base and went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
“The only thing we haven’t gotten is that big breakthrough, you know, with runners in scoring position,” Brandon Nimmo said. “…We’ve put pressure on them, we just haven’t gotten that big hit. Sometimes that happens.”
When they needed him most, pitcher Jose Quintana had his worst start in two months, allowing five runs on five hits with four walks and two strikeouts in just 3.1 innings of work.
While New York made their pitching move out of necessity, Dave Roberts and the Dodgers pulled starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto after 4.1 innings — he gave up two runs on four hits with eight strikeouts and one walk — to bring in a dominant bullpen that continued to stifle Mets bats, which did not score from the fourth inning on.
Ohtani rocketed the second pitch of the game from Quintana 118 mph off the bat 422 feet into the bullpens in right field. It was the superstar’s first lead-off postseason home run in his career and his third of the 2024 playoffs.
Vientos scored the Mets’ first run since the ninth inning of Game 2 when he took a Yamamoto fastball the other way over the right-field fence, similar to where Ohtani’s moonshot landed.
It was Vientos’ fourth home run of the postseason, tying him with Rusty Staub (1973), Mike Piazza (2000), and Carlos Delgado (2006) for the most round-trippers by a Met in a single playoff. His 12th RBI of October also tied him with John Olerud (1999) and Curtis Granderson (2015) for the most runs driven in during a single postseason.
The Dodgers worked two more across in the third to take a 3-1 lead following an RBI double from Tommy Edman and a run-scoring infield single by Enrique Hernandez. They proceeded to load the bases with two outs, but Quintana coaxed a Will Smith pop-out that was reeled in by Francisco Alvarez in foul territory.
The struggling Mets’ catcher, who struck out looking three times in Game 3 and left seven men on base in the previous two games, got the Mets started in the bottom of the third with an opposite-field single, which was immediately followed up by a single by Lindor and a one-out walk to Pete Alonso to load the bases.
Playing on one good foot as he deals with plantar fasciitis, Brandon Nimmo narrowly beat out an inning-ending double play that plated a run to cut the Mets’ deficit to one, though it was all they would get in the third.
The Dodgers punched right back and took a three-run lead in the fourth, driving Quintana from the game in the process. New York’s starter yielded a single to Chris Taylor and walked Ohtani with one out, prompting Mendoza to call in reliever Jose Butto. The decision backfired as Betts roped a double down the left-field line to score a pair and make it 5-2.
“They forced Quintana to come into the strike zone and when he did, they made him pay,” Mendoza said. “[With bringing in Butto] I was looking for a ground ball… but he got behind in the count and left one up.”
Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy set a new MLB playoff record with a walk in the fifth inning, making it the 11th straight plate appearance that he reached safely in a single postseason. The previous record was owned by David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox in 2007 and Billy Hatcher of the Cincinnati Reds in 1990 (10).
Betts put the Dodgers out of sight in the sixth inning, lofting a two-run home run off Phil Maton into the left-field seats following an Ohtani walk to make it a 7-2 game. It was the third and fourth RBI in Betts’ previous two at-bats while Ohtani came around to score for a fourth-straight time.
The Mets’ fate appeared sealed after yet another bases-loaded situation was squandered. New York got the first three lead-off men on, but Jose Iglesias struck out, pinch-hitter Jeff McNeil’s flyout to center was not deep enough to score the hobbled Nimmo from third, and pinch-hitter Jesse Winker’s liner died before the warning track; caught comfortably by Betts.
Los Angeles continued to pour it on in the eighth. Edman’s second double of the night drove in two more off Danny Young before Will Smith tacked on another with a single.
