The Los Angeles Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the NLCS on Wednesday with a dominant 8-0 win, starting with a scoreless start by Walker Buehler and ending, for all intents and purposes, with a towering homer from Shohei Ohtani.
After dominating in Game 1 and having that reversed in Game 2, the Dodgers showed their earlier form. Buehler wasn’t efficient, throwing 90 pitches in only four innings of work, but he proved elusive for the Mets, with 18 swinging strikes. After that, the Dodgers bullpen did its thing. The Dodgers have now thrown shutouts in four of their past five games.
Meanwhile, the offense hit early with a two-run rally in the second inning and hit hard in the eighth, when Ohtani continued his wild run of being anemic with the bases empty (0-for-22 with 11 strikeouts) and a steamroller with runners on base (7-for-9 with two homers). His three-run homer put the Dodgers up 7-0 and allowed the team to rest its remaining late-inning arms in the eighth and ninth.
Kiké Hernández contributed his 15th career postseason homer, which moves him into a tie for 18th all time. Max Muncy clobbered his 13th postseason homer, tying Corey Seager and Justin Turner for the Dodgers’ all-time lead. (Hernández hit five of his with the Boston Red Sox.)
The Mets will next try to keep pace in Game 4, with Jose Quintana scheduled to face Yoshinobu Yamamoto at Citi Field at 8:08 p.m. ET Thursday.
Here’s how it all went down via Yahoo Sports:
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They did all three of them in the span of five games.
the Dodgers are the 1st team with 3 shutout wins by 5+ runs in a single postseason
Ben Casparius completes the Dodgers’ fourth shutout in five games, and this one is an 8-0 blowout in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in this NLCS. Shohei Ohtani, Kiké Hernández and Max Muncy all homered. Walker Buehler did what was needed.
It will be Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Jose Quintana in Game 4 on Thursday.
Dodgers 8, Mets 0
Max Muncy absolutely clobbers a homer, and it’s now 8-0 Dodgers. He knew right away where it was going.
That moves Muncy into a tie with Corey Seager and Justin Turner for the Dodgers’ all-time postseason home run lead, with 13 long balls.
Casparius works around a walk of Brandon Nimmo to keep the Mets scoreless. The Dodgers will go for their fourth shutout in their past five games in the ninth.
A significant consequence of Ohtani busting this game open: The Dodgers don’t have to use their remaining top arms, such as Daniel Hudson and Evan Phillips, against the heart of the Mets order. Instead, Ben Casparius enters for the eighth and possibly ninth inning.
Ohtani with the bases empty this postseason: 0-for-22 with 11 Ks.
Ohtani with runners on base this postseason: 7-for-9 with two homers.
Dodgers 7, Mets 0
This is uncanny. Ohtani was hitless in his first four plate appearances with the bases empty, then he comes to the plate with two on and clubs a three-run homer — 116 mph off the bat, 410 feet, just over the right-field foul pole.
Daniel Hudson’s up for the eighth. Imagine that leaves Evan Phillips for the ninth tonight.
Treinen’s seventh inning: 11 pitches, 10 strikes, two strikeouts (one a three-pitch K of Lindor), no baserunners. He is scary when he’s hitting his spots, and he has been doing that a lot this postseason. The question now is if he stays in to face Vientos before the lefty Nimmo.
Treinen is a curious pick here. He’s arguably the Dodgers’ top arm out of the bullpen, and they deploy him with only one of the Mets’ big bats (Lindor) due up. It’s possible they’ve scheduled him to stay up to Lindor and Vientos and make sure those two are disconnected from the 3-4-5 of the Mets order, but the Dodgers are once again mixing things up with their bullpen.
Tylor Megill gets out of another two-on jam to keep the Mets within a grand slam of the Dodgers. It’ll be 8-9-1 in the bottom of the seventh against Blake Treinen as the Dodgers prepare for the last pass through the heart of the Mets order.
Chris Taylor also comes in to replace Gavin Lux at second base.
The jokes are too easy with Iglesias’ “OMG” anthem.
Ryan Brasier runs into trouble with two baserunners on and one out, but he escapes with a double play off the bat of Jose Iglesias. The Mets are down four runs with nine outs to work with.
Anthony Banda is up as Ryan Brasier strikes out Pete Alonso to lead off the sixth.
Postseason Kiké Hernández strikes again. On a 1-2 count with two outs, the Dodgers’ No. 9 hitter takes Reed Garrett deep to double the L.A. lead.
And now Shohei Ohtani reaches the plate with the bases empty for his fourth at-bat today.
The Dodgers bring in one of their top relief arms in Michael Kopech to face the top of the Mets order, and he goes 1-2-3 in the fifth — but with a couple of fly balls to the warning track by Lindor and Vientos.
Still 2-0 Dodgers, and the Mets have four innings to change that.
Garrett gets Hernandez swinging to end the inning scoreless. Severino’s final line: 4 2/3 innings, 3 hits, 2 earned runs, 4 BB, 3 K, 95 pitches.
Luis Severino walks Max Muncy, and that will do it for him. The Mets bring in Reed Garrett to face Teoscar Hernandez with two on and two outs.
All in all, a solid start for Severino, considering the Mets defense (including his) did him few favors in the second inning.
Whoa. Francisco Lindor makes an incredible play to steal a hit from Mookie Betts. Add it to his already long postseason highlight reel.