As former Mets manager Yogi Berra supposedly once said, it ain’t over ’till it’s over.
It’s not over for the Mets after a 12-6 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the NLCS. The Amazins’ staved off elimination Friday night at Citi Field in front of a sellout crowd by finally coming through with timely hitting with runners in scoring position.
Jesse Winker, playing in place of J.D. Martinez at DH, went 2-for-3 with an RBI triple, reaching base four times. Starling Marte, who hit behind him in the sixth spot, went 4-for-5 with three doubles and three RBI, Francisco Alvarez went 3-for-4 with an RBI double, and Pete Alonso reached base four times, putting the Mets on the board in the bottom of the first with a three-run homer off right-hander Jack Flaherty.
Despite the score, it wasn’t easy for the Mets to escape this one, and it won’t be easy to win two more times in Los Angeles. The Dodgers lineup continues to be a bad match for the Mets pitching staff. They take a lot of pitches and force the Mets to throw in the zone, which they struggled to do.
Andy Pages hit two homers for the visitors, a solo shot off David Peterson in the fourth and a three-run moonshot off Reed Garrett in the fifth that cut the Mets’ lead to 10-5. Mookie Betts led off the sixth with a solo homer off Ryne Stanek to make it 10-6.
David Peterson was able to get the Dodgers to swing and miss, but not often. The left-hander threw 79 pitches over 3 2/3 innings, but only 39 were strikes. Still, he mitigated the damage effectively, holding what is quite possibly the toughest lineup in baseball to two earned runs on six hits. He walked four and struck out three in his first playoff start.
Giving Peterson the start proved to be the right call by the Mets. He was able to hold the Dodgers at bay while the Mets gave him some early run support by going up 3-0 in the bottom of the first. The Dodgers cut it to 2-1 with a run scored on a wild pitch in the second, but the Mets responded with a five-run third inning to go up 8-2.
Facing Flaherty for the second time in a week, the Mets took eight runs off of him over three innings.
Pages took Peterson deep in the top of the fourth, and once again, the middle and bottom parts of the Mets’ order responded in the bottom of the inning, this time against right-hander Brent Honeywell. Alonso was hit by a pitch and came home on a triple to right field by Winker with none out. Winker later came around to score on a fly ball by Jeff McNeil to make it 10-2.
Winker scored again in the bottom of the sixth on another sacrifice fly by McNeil, this time increasing the Mets’ lead to 11-6.
Finally, Stanek retired the side in order in the top of the seventh. He got seven outs for the Mets, all of them crucial, setting the stage for Edwin Diaz to record the final six outs.
After Diaz retired the side in order in the top of the eighth, the Mets scored once more in the bottom of the inning, getting an anxious crowd excited once again. They remained on their feet for the top of the ninth as Diaz pitched around a two-out single to send the Mets to Los Angeles for another shot at redemption.