They were flattened by a haymaker. You can blame jet lag. You can blame Jack Flaherty, who pitched the game of his life. You can blame the crowd of Angelinos who tried their best to replicate on the Dodgers’ behalf at Chavez Ravine what the Mets enjoyed back in Queens last week.
You can blame any manner of things. But the harsh truth was this: the Mets played nine innings Sunday night looking like they belonged anywhere other than the National League Championship Series. Put it this way: if there’s a forfeit in a major league baseball game, the official score is 9-0.
That was the official score of Game 1, too, the Dodgers looking like the varsity club, the Mets like the JV.
The Mets needed to react to the bullying the way we’re always taught you’re supposed to from the first day of kindergarten: bully the bully. He throws an uppercut, you throw a straight right. Channel Sean Connery as Jim Malone in “The Untouchables”:
“They send one of yours to the hospital, you send two of theirs to the morgue!”
The Mets may not have sent the Dodgers to the coroner’s office Monday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. But they did send a message back to the Dodgers, seizing a 6-0 lead after two innings and grinding out a 7-3 win that ties the NLCS at 1 and 1, sends the teams back to Citi Field, which promises to be a madhouse Wednesday, with the Mets presently owning home-field advantage.
“We wanted to make some noise,” Francisco Lindor said, and of course he made sure to take a New Year’s Eve set of pots and pans straight to the crowd of 52,926, jangling them and the Dodgers with a brilliant eight-pitch at-bat leading off the game that was capped by a home run to right field off L.A.’s opener, Ryan Brasier.
“I was trying to get a good pitch to hit,” Lindor said, “and I got one.”
And when he did, it had the predictable effect on the rest of the lineup. You could see the Mets exhale. You could see it in starter Sean Manaea, who cruised through the opening innings. And you could see it in the top of the second, when the Mets attempted to build on their early lead.
They doubled it to 2-0 when Tyrone Taylor doubled in Starling Marte with one out. The rally was stunted when Francisco Alvarez popped out to short, but here’s where the Mets began to really flex. Dave Roberts waved four fingers, alerting Landon Knack that he wanted to walk Lindor intentionally.
Smart move. The only move, really. Lindor has been that dependable a threat for the Mets, and Roberts wanted no part of him. Lindor understood. The Mets surely did. So did all 52,926 in the house.
Hell, even Mark Vientos probably felt it was a smart decision.
But Vientos also felt something else.
“To be honest,” he said, “I took it personal.”
He took it personal. How great is that? Kid’s got less than a year in the bigs, but you could see by the way he shook his head in the on-deck circle that he couldn’t believe he was being granted this opportunity. You could see by the way he almost sprinted to the plate that he was planning on making the most of it.
“You want me up at the plate,” he would say later, “I’ll drive in a run.”
He did better than that. He drove in four of them. The fastball from Knack came in at 95.1 miles per hour. It left Vientos’ bat at 102.3 mph. And by the time it landed, 391 feet away in center field, the Mets had a 6-0 lead. The locals already looked eager to grab their car keys and beat the rush to the freeways.
And the Mets had answered a haymaker with a haymaker.
Manaea did his thing. And the Dodgers, who did win 98 games this year after all, tried to spook the Mets good, scoring twice in the sixth to cut the lead to 6-3, taking advantage of Manaea tiring and walking two and a couple of ground balls that should’ve been outs. The Angelinos were rousted from their slumber.
And Edwin Diaz, on cue, added to the agita in the ninth.
But then it seemed even Diaz decided to muscle up. After allowing two runners and seeing the tying run step to the on-deck circle, he went with 13 straight fastballs, no more kidding around, before ending the game by getting Freddie Freeman to flail at a slider.
Now they get Citi Field back in play, and Citi Field will have the Mets’ back, don’t worry about that.
“Mets Nation is amazing,” said Lindor, who is rapidly earning a PhD in Amazin’. “I’m looking forward to being home.” And he isn’t alone.