2024 National League Championship Series

Games Three, Four, and Five @ Citi Field - Queens, New York, NY

Game Six @ Dodger Stadium - Los Angeles, CA

Heading to New York, the series is tied at a game apiece. The Dodgers pummeled the Met in game one, but the Mets responded with a 7-3 win behind a leadoff Francisco Lindor homer and a Mark Vientos grand slam. The fans at Citi Field is raring to cheer on their beloved Mets, but the Dodgers big bats will look to silence the raucous crowd early. Shohei Ohtani has yet to have a hit with the bases empty, but he’s doing plenty of damage with runners on base. Dating back to the regular season, he is 16 for his last 19 with runners in scoring position… that’s just absurd. Mookie Betts and Max Muncy continue to swing hot bats, and with Freddie Freeman hobbled with an ankle injury, it will be Tommy Edman of all people stepping into the cleanup spot. This is a deep lineup that grinds out at bat after at bat, exhausting their opposing pitchers and forcing mistakes. The pitching plan is always a bit nebulous for manager Dave Roberts, who lacks reliable starting pitching, but has numerous quality options out of the pen. Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, Anthony Banda, and others have strung together zeroes across multiple games, though they will need at least something from their starters. Buehler will get the ball in game three, Yamamoto in game four, Flaherty in game five, and likely a bullpen game if it gets to six back in LA. It will take a team effort to bring the Dodgers back to the World Series, and these guys will live up to that task.

The Mets are feeling good heading into game three, as they should on this magical run they’ve been on. Carlos Mendoza will send Luis Severino to the mound for game three, then José Quintana for game four, and likely David Peterson for game five. If they can extend the series, they will be quite confident with their ace Sean Manaea on the hill, with either a shot to clinch the series or force a decisive game seven. But if the Mets aim to win this thing, the bats are gonna need to step up. Apart from the six run outburst early in game two, the Mets have been befuddled by the Dodger bullpen (just like San Diego). With a trip to the World Series on the line, we shall see whether the Mets will continue to conjure up playoff magic, or if the Dodgers can find a way to break it.

Audio clips from MLB.tv

LAD radio 570 AM - Stephen Nelson and Rick Monday

NYM radio WCBS - Howie Rose and Keith Raad

As always, shout out to Baseball Reference for statistics, boxscores, background information, and much, much more.

Catch you next time,

P.C.O.