Mark Vientos’ second-inning, two-out grand slam lifted the New York Mets to a Game 2, 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday evening at Dodger Stadium to tie the series at one game apiece.
A solo home run from Francisco Lindor and a Tyrone Taylor RBI double started the scoring for the Mets, who took full advantage of the Dodgers’ bullpen game and provided a swift reply from a 9-0 blowout loss in Game 1.
The Mets flirted with squandering a 6-0 lead, however. New York’s ace, Sean Manaea, went five-plus innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on two hits with seven strikeouts, and four walks. Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek held the Mets’ three-run lead into the eighth where Stanek walked a pair to put two on with two outs.
Manager Carlos Mendoza turned to closer Edwin Diaz, who got Enrique Hernandez to pop out to right to get out of the eighth.
Pete Alonso walked, stole second, and scored on a Starling Marte single to give the Mets an important insurance run in the top of the ninth. Diaz allowed a lead-off single then walked Shohei Ohtani, but struck out Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernandez, and Freddie Freeman to end it.
The series shifts back to Citi Field for Games 3, 4, and 5, beginning Wednesday night in Queens.
Lindor got the Mets started off the jump and with it, ended Dodgers pitching’s 33-inning scoreless streak that tied an MLB record set by the Baltimore Orioles in 1966.
To cap off an eight-pitch at-bat to lead off the game, Lindor jumped on a 2-2 cutter from Ryan Brasier that never broke inside. Instead, it stayed middle-middle and the Mets’ star cranked it 395 feet down the left-field line and out of the yard to give New York its first lead of the NLCS.
Against Landon Knack in the second, the Mets blew the doors off the Dodgers’ bullpen.
Starling Marte singled and Jesse Winker walked before Tyrone Taylor’s double plated Marte to make it a 2-0 game.
Los Angeles opted to intentionally walk Lindor to load the bases with two outs to pitch to Vientos, who went 0-for-4 in Game 1. Like Lindor, Vientos worked a lengthy at-bat, fouling off five pitches to work a 3-2 count. On the ninth pitch, Knack left a four-seam fastball over the heart of the plate and Vientos took it the other way 391 feet to just clear the right-center-field fence to put the Mets up six.
It was the second grand slam of this postseason for the Mets (Lindor in Game 4 of the NLDS), who had just one grand slam in postseason history before this year.
The Mets loaded the bases again with two outs in the third inning, but Francisco Alvarez flew out to center. It was just one of three failed attempts with the table set for him as he left seven men on base in his first three at-bats.
It appeared as though those missed opportunities would come back to bite the Mets as the Dodgers’ bullpen stabilized through Brent Honeywell, who pitched three scoreless innings.
Meanwhile, Max Muncy put the Dodgers on the board with a solo shot off Manaea in the bottom of the fifth.
In the sixth, the hosts mounted a rally fueled by poor Mets defense that ultimately ran Manaea from the game. The Mets starter walked Betts and Hernandez to lead off the frame before Freeman hit a comebacker up the middle that struck the pitcher’s mound, but could not be reeled in by Jose Iglesias to load the bases.
Maton came in to limit the damage, but not before the Dodgers snuck two more across. After Will Smith popped out, Tommy Edman’s grounder went under the glove of a lunging Alonso at first base, who was screened by Freeman, to score two. The reliever did get out of it by coaxing an inning-ending double play from Hernandez.
