The capacity crowd was animated and excited at the Mets' first National League Championship Series game at Citi Field in nearly a decade.
The Mets failed to adequately reward household electricity.
Just once this past October, they couldn't match the moment.
Delivering some thrilling endings and rewriting many unfortunate scripts (and game columns), this magical and skilled team couldn't do it all in one go.
Unusually, there was no great finish.
There was no heroics for the home team.
This time, the team with the slowest fireworks was the Dodgers. The majestic home run by international superstar Shohei Ohtani was well over the right field foul pole and was just fair (it was the right call, but we need to move the pole higher again!). A home run by Max Muncy in the final few innings celebrated an 8-0 Dodgers victory and quieted a visibly excited crowd.
Someone near the press box belatedly yelled, “Wake up (bleep)!” That's exactly what we expect, starting with Game 4 on Wednesday.
The Queen's team is losing, but of course we know better than to leave them out. They lost 2-1 in this mega-market, highly rated National League Championship Series. But as we've seen time and time again during this turbulent October, they're all about comebacks.
They've made an incredible comeback in recent weeks against some of the best teams in the league, defeating the Braves, Brewers and Phillies, but all of that is gone in this Derby. Now they must face a team filled with players who deserve their own tribute on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame.
If anyone can do that, it's the Mets.
Few teams have come back as consistently as they have, and the $300 million-plus Dodgers are missing most of their star-studded rotation and will need to improvise from talented manager Dave Roberts. There's a reason why Dodgers manager Roberts called this season his “most challenging season,” and the lack of weapons is probably number one through five. The Dodgers have a bona fide All-Star starting team, but the majority remain sidelined (Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Emmett Sheehan, River Ryan). , and of course Ohtani, at least as a pitcher) or fall to the point of being useless (Bobby Miller).
The Dodgers are far from perfect considering all the pain. So this is doable with the team coming together as a clutch, as the Mets.
Really, it's surprising now that this club can't achieve that. That's exactly what happened in the first NLCS home game since the days of David Wright and Daniel Murphy. The sold-out crowd of 43,883, who braved the October cold, deserved to be rewarded even more after a nearly 10-year wait.
Fans were gearing up for a great night that would never come. The Mets called out Doc and Darryl for the ceremonial first pitch, which was a nice touch and got the crowd going with “Let's go, Mets!” chanting. They kept it clean and that was nice too.
The environment was all about energy. However, the offense never took off.
The Mets' best play came on defense, stopping Los Angeles from adding points. The Mets had two highlight-reel plays, one of which was Tyrone Taylor's sliding diving catch reminiscent of Tommy Agee's great play in the 1969 World Series, which briefly thrilled the crowd. But they produced little in the way of a batting lineup that produced little results against previously struggling Dodgers starter Walker Buehler and a vaunted talented reliever corps.
The Mets made a few special plays (Lindall made a nice backhand scoop on a hot grounder from Mookie Betts), but the Dodgers' unintentional small ball gave them an undeserved lead, giving the Mets an early lead. He scored 2 points.
Three potential plays that weren't executed properly led to the damage. “OMG” was the worst ever.
After a struggling Francisco Alvarez completed a 10-foot “bunt,” an ill-advised errant throw to second base that was weak and slow led Mets starter Luis Severino to bizarrely return a second grounder directly. It became an advantage. Decorated fielder.
Severino swung his first ball too long, missing a chance to get the first runner on second base, let alone a potential double play, and then misplayed his second into a hit. Severino was a Gold Glove finalist, but he didn't have that kind of performance.
Taylor, an underrated hero of magical running, was as good as Agee, making a sliding catch on the right-center warning track for an extra base hit and a couple RBIs by Tommy Edman. This play was age-plus (except it wasn't a game-winning or World Series play).
Alvarez made the misplay worse when he saw a three-strike call in the bottom of the inning with one out and the bases loaded. I haven't been able to hit at all in October.
When Lindor appeared next, the crowd was buzzing with anticipation. “MVP,” they shouted. However, Lindor struck out Dodgers starting pitcher Walker Buehler's dynamic breaking ball at 3-and-2, ending the Mets' biggest threat.
It was that kind of night.
