LOS ANGELES — The Mets could potentially use another arm for this NLCS, but manager Carlos Mendoza doesn’t regret having one fewer reliever for this series than the last.
Adam Ottavino was omitted from the NLCS roster, allowing the Mets to add Jeff McNeil while keeping Luisangel Acuña.
Acuña has been used as a pinch-runner in the series — with one at-bat as a pinch hitter.
The Mets most notably could have used the extra arm on Thursday when Danny Young was stretched out to pitch 2 ¹/₃ innings in a blowout loss.
Mendoza had considered using a position player to pitch the ninth inning before the left-hander volunteered to keep going.
But Mendoza appreciates the extra versatility on his bench, even at the expense of carrying an additional pitcher.
“When you look at the way we have used our position player group we pretty much used all of them,” Mendoza said Saturday during a team workout at Dodger Stadium. “I don’t feel like we went into a game feeling short of pitching.”
McNeil is in the conversation to start a second straight game on Sunday.
The veteran utilityman went 0-for-3 on Friday, but brought in two runs with sacrifice flies.
It was McNeil’s first start since Sept. 6, when he fractured his right wrist.
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“I thought his at-bats were really good, especially for a guy that hasn’t played in a long time, especially the situational hitting,” Mendoza said. “You have got runners on third base twice and he got the job done with sacrifice flies.”
Pete Alonso’s signature moment of this postseason was the ninth-inning home run he hit in Milwaukee to help the Mets rally to win the wild-card series.
But the three-run homer he hit in Game 5 of the NLCS is also high on the list of Mets special moments in October.
But Alonso, when asked to name his favorite postseason moment, declined to specify anything individual.
“Just champagne showering every single time that we have because it’s a momentous celebration for the group and for the team,” Alonso said.
“That’s what we want. We just want to keep this thing alive, keep this thing going. It’s a really special team and just being able to celebrate with everybody, it’s just tremendous, because it’s really an unbelievable group.”