Mets outclassed and blown out yet again as they face elimination in the NLCS

The Mets walked too many batters, struggled top to bottom on the mound, and failed to get one timely hit after the next once again in the NLCS

NY Post

What’s Up with the Mets? 🚩

• The Mets got embarrassed at home yet again by the Dodgers, this time by a score of 10-2 in Game 4 of the NLCS (Box)

• LHP José Quintana got the start and gave up a home run to Shohei Ohtani on the second pitch of the game. It only got worse from there and his final line for the evening was 3.1 IP, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 1 HR

• The bullpen combination of José Buttó, Phil Maton, and Danny Young were equally terrible. They gave up five runs in 5.2 IP and they too walked the ballpark issuing 5 walks

• Mark Vientos remained the lone bright spot going 2-for-5 with a HR

• Brandon Nimmo also went 2-for-5 with a RBI despite playing in obvious pain

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Did you know? ⁉️

• Since the LCS moved to its current seven-game format in 1985, the winner of the fourth game of the NLCS has advanced to the Fall Classic 24 times (63.2%). Per Elias, in best-of-seven series, teams that go up 3-1, go on to win the series 81.0% of the time (17-4). In the LCS (AL or NL), a team up 3-1 in a seven-game series wins the series 82.2% of the time (37-8). In the 93 previous best-of-seven series that have gone at least five games, the team leading 3-1 has won 79 times (84.9%)

• The Mets have been outscored 30-9 in the first four games of the NLCS. According to Sarah Langs, that -21 run differential in the first four games of the series is the highest run differential in major league postseason history over such a span

• The Dodgers have drawn 31 walks so far which is also the highest ever in a postseason four-game span

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Who’s Cold ❄️

• Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso are a combined 8-for-46 with two RBI in the NLCS

• The Mets bullpen has a 6.53 ERA with 15 walks and four home runs allowed in 20.2 IP in the NLCS

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Moment of the Game 🙈

This was pretty much another poorly played game start to finish but the key moment came in the sixth inning when they loaded the bases with nobody out and did not score.

Jose Iglesias’s strikeout started it and Jesse Winker’s fly ball ended it. They were losing 7-2 at that point and had a chance to get back in it, but their biggest scoring chance of the game. They are 1-for-7 with three strikeouts and a grand slam with the bases loaded this series.

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GAME FIVE

Match-up: Mets (1-3) vs. Dodgers (3-1)

Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY

Starters: LHP David Peterson (1-0, 2.08 ERA) vs. RHP Jack Flaherty (1-1, 2.92 ERA)

When: 5:08 PM EDT

Where to Watch: FS1

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Carlos Mendoza has to manage with more urgency… ✍️

Francisco Lindor is asking fans to continue to believe in the Mets despite falling 3-1 in the NLCS and looking seriously outclassed at every turn.

The Mets aren’t even close to the Dodgers right now, whether it’s on the mound, in the field, at the plate, with their situational hitting, with their overall approach to pitching, their overall approach to hitting.

Even though there is still a slim chance they go on to win this series things aren’t looking so great for our heroes.

Let’s be clear. When you have been outscored by 21 runs and have issued 31 walks in four games, it’s not hard to figure out why the club is down 3-1 in the NLCS to the best overall team in baseball, and there’s not just a single area of concern. Ultimately, it’s on the players and it’s those players who are failing to execute and at the end of the day.

However, Carlos Mendoza does share some of the blame for how things have played out.

The first is his insistence with playing JD Martinez and Jose Iglesias.

Jesse Winker has an OPS over 1.000 and had key hits in the first two series of the playoffs. Despite facing two right-handed pitchers coming home after tying the series in Los Angeles, it was Martinez who got the start both games. Winker did have back issues towards the end of the season, so unless he is injured there is no reason he should be sitting. He did finally pinch hit in Game 4 which means he can bat but Mendoza is sticking with Martinez without a good enough explanation, although he did cite the reverse splits against Yoshinobu Yamamoto before Game 4 as a reason to stick with Martínez and a right-handed heavy bat.

Well, that didn’t exactly go as planned, did it?

Iglesias will forever be tied to this 2024 team and has brought a lot of joy with him. However, given his everyday duties over the last 5-6 weeks, it’s fair to wonder if he’s been overexposed in that role, at least at the plate although he has had some unexpected struggles in the field in this series. With both Jeff McNeil and Luisangel Acuña on the bench, it seemed like a good opportunity to return Iglesias to his utility role, as one of those players should have gotten a look these past two games but Mendoza stubbornly keeps running the same guys out there.

Then there is Francisco Álvarez, whose struggles have been well documented in recent days. He was another candidate that could have used a breather in Game 4 at a minimum. There is an argument that pitchers could prefer throwing to him over Luis Torrens but given the way the pitchers have performed so far this series, the catcher did not seem to make much of a difference.

Mendoza has done a fine job all season believing in his guys, and he has been the glue to a season full of miracles just when it seemed like the Mets were down and out. But the playoffs are a different breed. Sticking with struggling players to a fault could very easily be a reason they lose this series.

Mendoza hasn’t managed with a lot of urgency in this series, especially when it comes to the bullpen but also when it comes to trying to find hotter hands than the one he has in his current lineup configuration. But in the bullpen specifically, for instance, José Buttó has struggled throughout the postseason, yet Mendoza continues to run him out there in high leverage situations and continues to get burned.

Look at the fourth inning alone in Game 4. Mendoza let José Quintana - who moments before told Tom Verducci he was going to be aggressive with the bullpen since the formula “was not working,” as he put it - turn the lineup over to face Shohei Ohtani for a third time, pitched around him, then removed him before finally getting burned again by Mookie Betts.

By the way, it wasn’t that Quintana didn’t pitch well on Thursday. It was that his game and strategy plays right into the hands of the Dodgers, which is a game of slow and chase and the Dodgers don’t chase.

NY Post

There are also the issues with Phil Maton and the one big home run he has allowed after the next and all of the buttons that Mendoza used to push with success, but now do not.

With the offense sputtering the way it has against LA, games can not continuously get out of reach and yet the games continuously get out of reach early and often.

Whatever the formula was going into this NLCS, it clearly hasn’t worked, and now it is almost too late to fix it. Again, at the end of the day it is on the players who need to come through when the pressure is on, but it just seems like the decision making isn’t setting the team up for the best chance for success this week.

They have one more opportunity to fix this and at least force a Game 6 in LA, but if they want to move on to the next round it will be yet another steep hill to climb.

Mind you, this isn’t squarely on Mendoza. Again, the Mets are simply being outclassed by the Dodgers in every facet of the game. This isn’t at all meant to serve as an indictment on what has been a great rookie season for the Mets manager. These decisions are difficult, they’re magnified in the playoffs and he does in fact have to rely on the players who got him here and who are on the roster if they’re winning anything this season.

Unfortunately, he really hasn’t been able to do so in this series, and now the Mets find themselves on the brink.

Lets see if the Mets have one more miracle in them in 2024.

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The Championship Chase 🏆

• The Yankees and Guardians played an all-timer of a game with Jhonkensy Noel hitting a game-tying home run in the ninth and David Fry walking it off in the 10th