The Mets scored six runs early, thanks mostly to a Mark Vientos grand slam, and hung on for a 7-3 win over the Dodgers in Game 2 of the NLCS Monday in Los Angeles.
By defeating the Dodgers the Mets evened the series 1-1 with the next three games at Citi Field, beginning Wednesday.
Here are the takeaways...
-The Mets won mostly with the long ball, as Francisco Lindor led off the game with a home run against Dodgers’ right-hander Ryan Brazier, the opener in a bullpen game for LA, and Vientos hit a grand slam in the second inning, giving the Mets a 6-0 lead.
Tyrone Taylor delivered the other run the Mets scored during a five-run second-inning rally, lining a double down the left-field line to score Starling Marte, who had singled and moved to second on Jesse Winker’s walk.
Later, with the Mets leading 6-3 in the ninth, Marte, who went 3-for-5, singled home Pete Alonso to add an insurance run. Alonso had walked and stolen second.
-Sean Manaea delivered a dominant start that ended quickly in the sixth inning when a couple of walks and an infield error loaded the bases for the Dodgers, prompting Carlos Mendoza to go to the bullpen with a 6-1 lead.
Phil Maton came on to get out of the inning, giving up two runs charged to Manaea on a single by Tommy Edman that Alonso could have had. Alonso went to the ground with a half-dive to his right and had it lined up but came up with his glove too quickly and the ball went through for a single.
With the score 6-3, Maton then got a crucial double play to get out of the inning, as Kiké Hernandez grounded to Vientos, who bobbled the ball but still had time to start a 5-4-3 double play.
So Manaea only gave up two hits in five-plus innings, but due in part to four walks and an error by Jose Iglesias, he gave up three runs, two earned.
Still, the left-hander set the tone by dominating the Dodgers early. Most impressive was the way he overmatched Shohei Ohtani, striking him out twice, once with an ugly emergency swing, and getting a weak pop-up on as Ohtani bailed out against his sweeper.
-The Mets got 12 outs from their bullpen in the form of three relievers, Maton, Ryne Stanek, and Edwin Diaz, with each of them getting four outs.
Stanek ran into trouble in the eighth, giving up a two-out single to Edman and a walk to Max Muncy, forcing Mendoza to bring in Diaz as Kiké Hernandez came to the plate as the potential tying run.
The Dodgers stole second and third but Diaz got Hernandez to pop out to right, albeit on a hanging slider.
In the ninth, with a 7-3 lead, Diaz allowed the first two hitters to reach base, walking Ohtani, but then struck out Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez to strike out swinging on his fastball and got Freddie Freeman swinging at his slider to end the game.
-The pivotal moment came in the second inning when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts elected to intentionally walk Lindor with two outs to load the bases.
That brought up Vientos, who put together a great, nine-pitch at-bat against right-hander Landon Knack. Vientos fouled off five pitches, four of them sliders, as the count went to 3-2, and then he hammered a 94-mph fastball over the center field wall for a grand slam to give the Mets a 6-0 lead.
For Vientos, it was his third home run of the postseason, tied with Alonso for second-most behind Fernando Tatis Jr., who hit four. His 11 RBI are the most by anyone in the postseason.
The Mets had chances to build a bigger lead but, Vientos’ grand slam aside, they left a lot of runners on base.
-Francisco Alvarez had the most opportunities, going 0-for-3 with RISP, leaving six runners on base. Alvarez is hitting .156 in this post-season.
Game MVP: Mark Vientos
His second-inning grand slam gave the Mets a 6-0 lead as Vientos continues to have an outstanding postseason.
With two hits on Monday, Vientos is hitting .378 in nine postseason games with a .676 slugging percentage.