Mark Vientos makes Dodgers pay with grand slam as he once again shows he's ready for bright playoff lights
Mets third baseman Mark Vientos is all smiles in the dugout after hitting a grand slam in the second inning during Game 2 of the NLCS against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Monday. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers didn’t necessarily make a mistake with their decision to intentionally walk Francisco Lindor in the second inning of Monday’s NLCS Game 2.
Two on, two outs. When it comes to Lindor, we’re talking about the player who gave Shohei Ohtani a run for MVP during the regular season, then turned into Mr. October 2.0 the past few weeks.
Plus, Lindor already had smashed a leadoff homer the previous inning, working Dodgers starter/opener Ryan Brasier for seven pitches before blasting the eighth into the partying Mets’ bullpen in rightfield.
We’ll never know what Lindor might have done if Landon Knack got the green-light to pitch to him. To the Dodgers, loading the bases with Lindor — to face Mark Vientos — was the smart choice, the percentage play.
But that’s not how Vientos, standing on deck, viewed the decision.
“I took it personal,” Vientos said later.
Cue the Michael Jordan meme. And these days, Vientos comes off just as cold-blooded as the NBA legend. So after Vientos grinded down Knack for eight pitches — fouling off three of them with two strikes — the frustrated Dodgers reliever rifled a 96-mph fastball that split the plate, nearly belt-high.
That was the mistake. A huge one.
Vientos hammered the teed-up heater for a grand slam that blew open Game 2 and propelled the Mets to a 7-3 victory, evening the NLCS as it shifts to Citi Field for the next three games.
“There’s one thing that Mark doesn’t lack and that’s confidence,” Lindor said. “He’s very confident. He believes in himself. He doesn’t back down from any challenges that are thrown his way. I’m happy for him. He’s growing up. He’s stayed the course. He’s going to be a really, really good player.”
With all due respect to Lindor, the man his teammates call “Swaggy V” (for all that dripping swagger) already is really, really good. Lindor provided the Mets' ice-breaker with his leadoff homer — snapping the Dodgers’ incredible 33-inning scoreless streak of these playoffs — but it was Vientos who delivered the back-breaker, just like he’s been doing all October.
Vientos joined Lindor and Edgardo Alfonzo as the only Mets with a grand slam in the franchise’s playoff history, and he’s now hitting .378 (14-for-37) with two doubles, three homers and 11 RBIs through his first nine postseason games. Vientos also has a .410 on-base percentage and a 1.086 OPS. His six multi-hit games are tied for the most by a Met in the playoffs with John Olerud (1999) and Todd Zeile (2000).
That’s an impressive October track record for a recently-graduated prospect completing his first full season — oh, and after he was demoted at the end of spring training. Vientos didn’t even make the Opening Day roster, and only got his shot when prospect pal Brett Baty flamed out at third base.
Here in the NLCS, that feels like a lifetime ago to Vientos, who went from yearning for his major-league shot to hoping someone like Knack gives him a moment.
“I want to be up there during that at-bat for sure,” Vientos said. “I want them to walk Lindor in that situation, to put me up there. And at that point I was just like, let me simplify the game, just get one run in, get a walk — whatever I can do to add another run. And luckily I hit a bomb there and it went over the fence.”
The other special thing about Vientos? In addition to his prodigious strength, he makes this stuff sound so simple. It’s no coincidence that manager Carlos Mendoza installed him as the Mets' No. 2 hitter — the slot reserved for the team’s top bat — on Aug. 15. He bounced around a bit after that, but stuck for good by September.
And Vientos has only improved since then. When Mendoza was asked Monday if he’s surprised anymore when Vientos comes up big on this stage, he just shakes his head. How could he be? In breaking down Vientos’ slam, it was what the manager’s been watching from him all year.
“His ability to slow the game down,” Mendoza said. “You could see him calm, under control. He took pretty good breaking balls down and away. Then just having the awareness of the situation and what the pitchers are trying to do to him, and at 3-and-2, not trying to do too much, staying on the big part of the field. The power's real.”
So is the baseball IQ. When I later asked Vientos if he felt like he was winning that second-inning battle with Knack, wearing him down with each pitch, figuring that he’d eventually crack — maybe to some extent. That final pitch was not what he anticipated, however.
“I didn't think he was going to give me a fastball,” Vientos said. “That was my approach, to see a heater up, but I wasn't expecting heater. I thought I was going to get like a slider and I was just going to poke it in the hole or something.”
The Dodgers weren’t that lucky. You make a mistake to Vientos, and it winds up in the seats, not bouncing along the shallow grass. The only person who ultimately retrieves the baseball is someone who puts down their beer or hot dog to snag it. So when Vientos saw that fastball, and the chance to put the Mets’ stamp on Game 2, his eyes grew wide.
“Yeah,” Vientos said, smiling. “I wasn’t going to miss it.”
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
