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Dodgers unable to overcome early deficit, as Mets stave off elimination with 12-6 victory in Game 5 of NLCS. LA leads series 3-2

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Dodgers unable to overcome early deficit, as Mets stave off elimination with 12-6 victory in Game 5 of NLCS. LA leads series 3-2

The New York Mets love it when people count them out. So in a season of miraculous comebacks, what’s one more?

The Mets offense broke out in a season-saving elimination game, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 12-6 in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series on Thursday night at Citi Field. 

“If we come back from this, then it’s going to be a heck of a story,” said Mets’ outfielder Brandon Nimmo of the possibility of overcoming a 3-1 deficit. “We’re going to be adding to that whole Grimace, OMG stuff.”

Similar to sharks circling in the ocean, the Dodgers smelled blood in the water after back-to-back blowout victories over the Mets in Games 3 and 4. 

Rather than go with a bullpen game to line up two of their best starters for when the series shifts back to Los Angeles for Games 6 and 7, they opted for Game 1 starter Jack Flaherty, who threw seven dominant innings against New York last Sunday. 

The move backfired, as Flaherty was a shell of his Sunday self, allowing eight runs on eight hits in just three short innings. 

“They made some adjustments and did a good job. I let the game speed up on me. I didn’t make the adjustments in-game that would normally get made,” said Flaherty of what went wrong on Thursday night. “All I had to do was be average and we’re in this game. But now we have to regroup, and go back to LA.”

After his gem in Game 1, Flaherty never expected to pitch a dud in a potential closeout game. 

“That’s what makes the postseason so interesting, facing a team two times in the span of five days. They wanted to get back for what happened in Game 1, and I wanted to continue rolling,” said Flaherty of Game 1 compared to Game 5. “But that’s not how it went. They were able to do a good job and tip your cap to them. It’s frustrating. Today sucks, but we have another one, and we get to go back to LA and get greeted by our fans.”

Pete Alonso, who didn’t have a home run or an RBI in the series entering the game, heaved his aching teammates off the ropes just when it appeared like the Polar Bear was going lead them into a long winter. 

Alonso, who could have played in his final game at Citi Field with the Mets, threw the first punch when he blasted a three-run home run to center field off Flaherty in the first inning. 

“I’m just really happy I could come through right there for the fellas,” said Alonso of his first inning homer. “I’m just so happy because this group is so special. And I’m happy that we get to live to fight another day and play another game of baseball together.”

The sputtering Mets offense, that had only produced two runs at home in the series, awoke from their hibernation with 12 runs in Game 5. 

Alonso wasn’t the only one with a Herculean performance for the Mets on Thursday. Francisco Lindor was 2-for-4 with a triple, an RBI and two runs scored. Starling Marte was 4-for-5 with three doubles, and catcher Francisco Alvarez broke out of his slump with three hits in total. 

“It feels good, not only because I had a good game, but also because the team won,” Marte said of his three doubles and the Mets victory. “As long as I’m giving my 100 percent, the team’s producing. Yeah, it’s definitely exciting. As long as I’m on base I feel like we can have success.”

Entering the game the Mets looked like a junky old car that was driving on three flat tires and slowly running out of gas. Their struggling offense had them on the brink of elimination and they were forced to start David Peterson, who up until this point in the postseason had only pitched out of the pen. 

Meanwhile, the Dodgers looked like a Ferrari F1 race car. Seemingly firing on all cylinders, cruising to the finish line, poised to advance to their first World Series since 2020 in the bubble in Texas. 

Yet somehow the roles were reversed. By the end of the third inning it was 8-1 Mets. After the fourth it was 10-2 New York, the same score they lost by less than 24 hours earlier. 

“We’re capable of putting together games like this, especially when 1 through 9, we’re clicking, we’re not chasing,” said Mets’ manager Carlos Mendoza. “We showed up today. We needed that. Obviously Pete setting the tone in the first inning was important, and we just continued to add on.”

Andy Pages tried to put the Dodgers on his back with not one, but two home runs in the game. 

The 23-year-old rookie became the youngest player to a have a multi-homer game in Dodgers franchise history when he belted a solo shot in the fourth, and a three-run shot in the top of the fifth. 

“I feel great about what I did at the plate,” said Pages through a translator. “I had a great game, but the team didn’t win and that’s the only thing I care about.”

Mookie Betts added a homer of his own, his fourth of the postseason, but it was too little, too late for the Dodgers. 

“We’re going to play 27 outs no matter what the score is,” said Betts of his 6th inning homer. “It doesn’t really matter what I did. A loss is a loss. I’m not here for personal accolades. We just have to find a way to win a ball game. We’ve got to turn the page and get ready for the next one.”

Baseball is a strange sport. One minute, the Mets looked dead on arrival, things were dire as they could be after their second straight blowout loss in Game 4. But the 2024 Mets thrive on dire. 

After getting swept by the Dodgers in late-May, they fell to 22-33 and fell six games back of a wild-card berth. They still made the playoffs. 

In the Wild Card round against the Brewers, they were two outs away from their season ending before Alonso’s three-run homer saved them in Milwaukee.

Then in the NLDS, they rallied with five runs in the eighth inning in the opener at Philadelphia, and Lindor hit a go-ahead grand slam to give them the lead in the sixth inning of Game 4.

“It’s taught us a lot about our character and who we are in our identity as a team. We’re a super resilient bunch, and we’ve had to pretty much answer the bell all year,” Alonso said. “The one word I can think of for the 2024 Mets other than Grimace is resiliency. That’s just who we are.”

The series now shifts back to Los Angeles for Game 6 on Sunday, October 20th, with first pitch scheduled for 5:08PM PT on FOX.

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