Mets blown out again by Dodgers in NLCS Game 4, now one loss away from elimination
Pinch hitter Jesse Winker #3 of the Mets reacts after flying out to end the sixth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers with the bases loaded in Game 4 of the NLCS at Citi Field on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
A season marked by so much fun, drama and improbable success may be entering its final day.
The Mets’ 10-2 loss to the Dodgers in Game 4 on Thursday night pushed them to the brink of elimination for the second time this month, this time against a club that has looked in the NL Championship Series every bit deserving of the best-team-in-the-majors mantle it earned during the regular season.
Los Angeles’ top two hitters, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts, tormented Mets pitchers for a gaudy combined final line: 5-for-9 with two home runs, three walks, five RBIs, seven runs .
With the Dodgers owning a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, the Mets’ scenarios are straightforward, if not easy: Win three in a row — beginning with Game 5 at 5 p.m. Friday at Citi Field — or go home for winter.
And so they will have to do one more time what they have done all year: Save the season. After opening the new year 0-5, bottoming out at 11 games under .500 in early June, skidding in August, threatening to blow their primo playoff positioning in late September and nearly making an immediate postseason exit in Milwaukee two weeks ago, they figured it out at each junctures, transforming into these chaotic comeback darlings who have advanced further than anybody involved realistically expected.
Not on Thursday, though. The game came to be defined by a pair of half-innings — the top of the fourth and the bottom of the sixth. The Mets came up small both times.
The Mets trailed by just one when they sent Jose Quintana back to the mound for the fourth, trying to squeeze from the lefthander a couple of additional outs, maybe a whole extra inning. He departed having allowed two of three batters to reach base.
Manager Carlos Mendoza made his first big call of the night: bringing in righthander Jose Butto — who has fallen so far down the depth chart that he had been relegated to mop-up duty in Game 1 — instead of a higher-leverage, more reliable option such as Ryne Stanek or Phil Maton.
Butto’s first batter, Betts, lined a double to leftfield. Brandon Nimmo just about got to the ball but couldn’t stop it from rolling all the way to the wall, the first clear case of the plantar fasciitis in his left foot — which makes it difficult for him to slow down from running and, in this case, physically pick the ball up — costing the Mets. Two runs scored easily.
When Mendoza later pulled Butto in the sixth, he opted for Maton, who faced the same first batter, Betts, who hit a two-run home run.
The Mets had a chance to make it interesting in the sixth, loading the bases with no outs. But Jose Iglesias (strikeout swinging), Jeff McNeil (flyout) and pinch hitter Jesse Winker (lineout) went down in order. Winker’s drive briefly put a jolt into the sold-out crowd of 43,882 — looking for a grand slam that would have turned it into a one-run game — but it died well short of the wall.
Quintana gave up five runs in 3 1/3 innings. Over the previous eight weeks, he had allowed four runs.
The primary problem for him: He lives on the edges of the strike zone, getting opposing hitters to chase balls, but the Dodgers don’t fall for that. Quintana issued four walks
“That’s what makes that lineup a dangerous lineup: They don’t chase,” Mendoza said before the game. “But Quintana is going to have to execute pitches and have all three pitches in the zone. He’s got to get ahead, he’s going to have to stay ahead.
“They’re probably going to attack him and he’s got to continue to attack. Because if he gets behind, that’s when we saw during the year [when] he was struggling, he was behind in counts, 2-0, 3-1, and he’s gotta come in and they made him pay. This is a team that is going to do that.”
The first sign of trouble came immediately. Ohtani launched Quintana’s second pitch of the game an estimated 422 feet to right-centerfield for a home run. It came off his bat at 118 mph.
The Mets answered via Mark Vientos’ solo shot in the bottom of the first.
They managed little else, however, against Dodgers righthander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who gave up two runs in 4 1/3 innings.
The Mets made Yamamoto their top target last offseason, when he made the jump from Japan to the majors. Their wooing attempt included dinner at Steve Cohen’s massive Connecticut home in December.
What does Mendoza remember most from that evening?
“How impressive Steve Cohen’s house was,” he said.
Yamamoto wound up choosing the Dodgers for the same 12-year, $325 million contract that the Mets offered him. It was part of Los Angeles’ splurge of well over $1 billion.
“He ended up signing after Ohtani, right?” Mendoza said. “I was like, really?”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
