Within the Japan vs. Japan battle to steer off Sunday evening’s battle between final 12 months’s NLCS groups, Shohei Ohtani took the primary level with a house run on the second pitch of the sport.
Nevertheless, Kodai Senga finally bested Ohtani by holding the Los Angeles Dodgers scoreless the remainder of the best way via his outing. The Mets wasted no time in shifting forward, with Pete Alonso hitting a two-run homer within the backside of the identical body, and Senga and the bullpen made it get up in a 3-1 win Sunday evening at Citi Discipline.
The Mets (32-21) took the sequence towards the defending World Collection champs 2 video games to 1.
Nothing got here straightforward for the Mets towards the Dodgers over Memorial Day Weekend, and it by no means does towards their West Coast foes. But there was clearly no intimidating issue with the Dodgers like there was previously. All weekend, supervisor Carlos Mendoza has been preaching to his group that whereas the Dodgers are nice, the Mets are fairly good too.
Clearly, the message was acquired.
After Ohtani put Los Angeles up 1-0 within the first inning, the following two batters reached on an error by third baseman Mark Vientos and a double to place runners on the corners with no outs. Heart fielder Tyrone Taylor made what was arguably the play of the sport.
Taylor coated vital floor monitoring down a fly ball from Will Smith to shallow right-center area, earlier than throwing proper on the road to catcher Luis Torrens at house plate simply as Mookie Betts got here sliding in feet-first. Residence plate umpire Marvin Hudson referred to as Betts protected, however the Mets challenged the decision and it was overturned.
Taylor’s throw had pinpoint precision and the tag by Torrens was textbook. It was a wonderfully executed double play. Senga received Teoscar Hernandez to take a look at a slider on the surface nook for strike 3 to finish the inning.
The Dodgers battled Senga, forcing him to throw every thing within the strike zone. The Los Angeles lineup fouled quite a few pitches again and laid off borderline balls on the corners. Senga’s pitch depend was already up within the 70s by the fifth inning, and within the 80s by the point he loaded the bases.
Smith hit a tough floor ball to Vientos at third to depart them loaded.
Senga (4-3) held the Dodgers to solely the Ohtani house run, permitting 5 hits, strolling 4 and hanging out 5 over 5 1/3 innings.
Within the backside of the second, Juan Soto reached on an error by third baseman Max Muncy, beating out the throw after Muncy bobbled the ball with two outs. The Dodgers ought to have been out of the inning, however left-hander Landon Knack (2-2) hung a curveball as much as Alonso, who put it into the left area seats for hist tenth homer of the 12 months.
It snapped a stretch of 16 video games and 65 at-bats with no lengthy ball, the longest streak of Alonso’s profession.
The Mets by no means took their foot off the gasoline, capitalizing on a botched double play within the third to go up 3-1. When the hits weren’t falling, they performed crisp protection to assist their pitchers shield the lead.
With Edwin Diaz unavailable after getting seven outs within the first two video games, Ryne Stanek changed Senga within the sixth with one on and one out, getting Andy Pages to floor right into a double play. Max Kranick retired all six batters he confronted, with Soto making a incredible catch over his shoulder on the run to rob Michael Conforto of additional bases within the seventh.
Reed Garrett stranded a runner at second base within the ninth to choose up his first save of the season.
In seven days, the Mets will face the Dodgers (32-21) as soon as once more, this time in a four-game set in Los Angeles. Win that one, and so they’ll cement themselves as contenders as soon as once more.
