The best thing about sports is that what you think will happen often doesn’t. The worst thing about sports is that the bad guys win too often. Case in point? In Sunday’s Game 6, the high-spending Dodgers closed out the NLCS vs. the Mets 10-5.
Mets ace Sean Manaea never gave his team a chance. That was obvious when he couldn’t find the strike zone in a (believe it or not) 34-pitch first inning. Manaea’d night was done after 64 pitches were thrown in two innings, a performance that yielded five runs, six hits, and two walks. His night ended after allowing a walk to Teoscar Hernandez and a two-run home run to Tommy Edman, giving the Dodgers a 4-1 Mets lead.
You might have said “Good night, Gracie” to the Mets by then. The rest of the night was nothing more than a preordination of the Dodgers being an NL champion.
There’s no point in rationalizing what went wrong or thinking, What if? The Dodgers were the better team, and the Mets tank was empty when they arrived in Los Angeles. Jose Butto, Francisco Lindor, Jose Iglesias, Phil Maton, and Manaea had nothing. Some, such as Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo, ran on fumes. This team had been grinding since the summer, and eventually, it caught up to them.
The Dodgers KOed the Amazins in Game 4 with a 10-2 victory. Game 5 might have as well been a gentleman’s sweep where the bad guys showed mercy, knowing they had this series in hand. They outscored the Mets 37-14 in this NLCS. What’s there to be said?
Dodgers’ stars Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts kicked butt in the series by hitting a total of four home runs and driving in 15 runs. You know a team is rolling when Tommy Edman, a .237 hitter in the regular season with six homers and 20 RBIs, is hitting 100 points higher in the postseason (.341), and went 2-5 Sunday night with a homer, four RBIs, and crossed the plate four times. Overall, Edman scored 11 runs in the series.
The Dodgers earned the right to be arrogant and cocky when they can back it up. We can talk about pride before the fall, but that becomes accepted as a cliche when players back it up. That’s why I predict that the Yankees don’t know what they are in for starting Friday night. LAD can match the Yankees in well-spent money, wear pitchers down, stifle a lineup, and have depth.
This was not the Mets’ time. Besides, they have flaws that became apparent: a lack of depth in the bullpen, a starting rotation that is good but not good enough, and a streaky lineup. The outcome might have been different had the Padres won the NLDS.
The Dodgers were another story; they were great all season and found ways to win with a powerful lineup. You don’t win 98 games by accident.
This year, everything came together for that team. This happens when they consistently make the playoffs year in and year out. Things finally align right.
Still, it’s depressing for the Mets, a team that had been competing at the playoff level since June. While fans will cherish what they just experienced, the media in town will likely pretend that it never happened. That’s the way it goes in this bottom-line city.
You bet it hurts that the Mets will be watching the season’s final series. That said, opportunity awaits. As Buck Showalter would say, “Do better next year, Mets.”
