Early start for game 5 of the series. Jack Flaherty against David Peterson. Freddie back in the lineup, and to my surprise, Will Smith starting a day game following a night game. Would have thought that Austin Barnes might have gotten the start. Lux also not starting. Dodgers first inning started off very well with Ohtani singling and Mookie doubling him to third. But the next 3 hitters, Hernandez, Freeman and Edman made outs. In the bottom of the first, the Mets got a single from Lindor, a walk to Nimmo. Vientos struck out. Then Pete Alonso hit a ball that was very low in the zone over the center field fence for a 3-run homer. Mets up 3-0. Winker grounded out, Marte doubled, Taylor walked, and McNeil flied out.
Dodger second, Kike walked and Muncy struck out. Smith lined out. Pages singled Kike to third. Peterson threw a wild pitch and Kike scored with Pages moving up to second. Ohtani walked and Betts popped out to first. Mets second, Alvarez doubled, and the next three Mets were retired by Flaherty. In the top of the third, the Dodgers managed only a single by Edman.
Bottom of the third, the roof fell in on Flaherty. Alonso and Winker walked. Marte doubled driving in both. Taylor and McNeil made outs. Alvarez singled scoring Marte. Lindor tripled scoring Alvarez. Nimmo singled to score Lindor and Vientos grounded out. 8-1 Mets. Dodgers got a run back in the top of the fourth on a homer by Pages. Honeywell took over for Flaherty. Alonso was hit by a pitch, Winker tripled to score Alonso, 9-2 Mets. Taylor was hit by a pitch and McNeil hit a sac-fly to score Winker. 10-2 Mets.
In the top of the fifth, Edman struck out. Kike was hit by a pitch and Smith flied out. Pages then hit a 3-run homer to deep left. Stanek took over for Garrett. Ohtani struck out. Honeywell got the Mets 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning. Betts homered leading off the sixth. That would be all for the Dodgers. Mets scored single runs in the 6th and the 8th and the Dodgers were shut down the rest of the way. MT wins, 12-6. Game 6 is Sunday. No starting pitchers announced.
Pretty sure it’s a bullpen game vs. Manaea (or however you spell his last name.)
We’re in a good position. Mets had to win 1 in LA to shift home field advantage in their favor and did so. We had to win 2 of 3 in NYC to shift home field advantage back in our favor and did so.
Two homes game to win 1 to advance to the WS.
Would have been fun to trash the Mets visitor clubhouse instead of our own in the celebration.
Looks like a bullpen game on Sunday and Buehler on Monday if needed.
Man, Emanuel Clase has completely lost it
It’s being reported that Roberts will talk to Freddie about sitting out game 6. Doesn’t think he’s swinging the bat well.
Yankees up 3-1 vs Cleavland. No magic comebacks for the Guardians tonight.
Well, had a bad feeling as soon as we could not score after 2nd and third with no out in the top of the first.
Teo, FF Smith really are in bad slumps. FF obviously is hurt and not close to 100 percent. Debatable if it would be better to sit him on Sunday. Teo now something like 0-18 in this series. He is due to come up big if the season is any indication.
Smith ? Hmmm, not much confidence looking at his weak at bats.
Flaherty did not have anything today. No velo, no location, no nothing. That is the second clunker start he has produced in this postseason. Should be taken into consideration when thinking about giving him a big contract for multiple years.
Before the series I would have been elated knowing we would be up 3-2 going back to LA and I still am. But we have serious concerns in our rotation . Understandable with all the injuries. Honeywell for another game had to wear one for the team and did so in an admirable way.Roberts clearly managing for Game 6 and Game 7 (if necessary).
Bullpen game vs Manaea on Sunday. Tough customer who held our offense in check for 5 innings last time out. Won´t be easy to end the series against him.
Dodgers thinking about sitting FF vs Manaea. In that case I would play Mookie at 2b, Pages in RF, Kike at 3b and CT3 in CF. We need offense vs this tough LHP and Mookie at 2b gives us the best lineup possible. Plus it is the best possible defense too at this time.
Mets bats have gained some momentum too. Nervous time on Sunday for sure but nobody said this was going to be easy.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I missed this game as it was aired at 4am, my time. Beauty sleep is more important at my stage of the game.
When I turned on my computer to get the score, I was indeed surprised to see such a high scoring game. I guess the Mets just vented. Glad they did because I fully expect the Bums to whoop ass tomorrow. Bull Pen should be raring to go.
I agree with most of what has been said in here after this clunker. Hate to admit it but because of Flaherty it turned into a giveaway game. Honeywell is like seeing Grove to me. Any game those guys are in a game the Dodgers are in trouble.
Maneae obviously can be beat. But going against the him and the Mets in a bullpen game with Freddie out, CT in, and Teo and Smith on the schneid sounds plenty scary to me.
Ordinarily I would say the Dodgers up 3-1 they will win. But with this pitching staff there is nothing ordinary about it. I think they will pull this off but it’s going to take a team effort to do it. If the bullpen game doesn’t work you can bet the A cast relievers will be going back to back on Monday.
This is not on Doc. The game plan was Flaherty for 5-6, and unless needed late for a victory, save the A list relievers for Game 6 in LA. So he was under the weather. What were the options? Go with Knack? The game got away early. Not his fault.
Flaherty, 162 innings, 3.17 ERA, 3.2 fWAR. Nobody on the Dodgers came close to those numbers. Most of his success was of course with Detroit, and one has to wonder if maybe the Tigers, an eventual playoff team saw something in him that said trade him. He’s 29 years old. He, like ever starting pitcher on the staff will warrant 6-7 man rotation. I think he’s worth a contract extension but I’d be careful with it.
The Game 6 match up —
Dodgers fully-rested A-List bullpen pitchers
vs
Mets SP Manaea (on short leash) PLUS their fully-rested A-List bullpen pitchers, w/all-hands-on-deck SP’s.
I see a drawn-out, low-scoring, nail-biting game.
The problem is Freddie/Teo/Will for various reasons are struggling at the plate.
Finding out that Flaherty was under the weather and not 100% paints a whole new picture of Roberts/Front Office and the decision to start him in game 5. Could have went with a bullpen game and rested Flaherty for game 6 when he would be 100% or close to it.
Also, knowing Flaherty was ill, why did Roberts stay with him so long. He clearly was struggling mightily. Especially with an off day Saturday.
Dodgers loss ensures World Series will start on Friday.
Obviously, a disappointing result in game 5. The game started nicely for the Dodgers. When they failed to score, especially after Ohtani’s base running blunder, I had a bad feeling about the game. That was shortly confirmed. To score six runs and lose adds to the disappointment.
To find out that Flaherty was not feeling well and still went out to pitch, now, seems like a bad decision. And, to leave him in and let the game get out of control does not make sense to me. It wasn’t good for Flaherty’s mental or physical health and certainly not good for the team. Watching Roberts’ after game thoughts was the usual word salad and not very useful. Regardless, he made the decisions he made and it is what it is. Monday morning QBing is easy for us as fans. Roberts backstop is that they have another two games at home to wrap this series up.
Having to use a bullpen game in Game 6 of a NLCS is a true reflection of today’s MLB. I will be curious how they set this staff up to get through nine innings. Hopefully, the offense can provide some early run support for them.
It looks like Freddie needs to be removed from the roster. I can appreciate his desire to play and try to help the team, but he is doing the opposite right now. It’s unfortunate. So I would go with the following lineup for Game 6 and 7 (if necessary):
DH Ohtani
RF Betts
1B Muncy
3B Kiki
SS Edman
LF Teoscar
C Smith
CF Pages
2B Taylor / Lux (Game 7)
It’s important that Teoscar and Will get out of the slumps they are in. Especially, if they move on to the WS. With FF probably unavailable it really affects the offense if they aren’t contributing.
I fear that with all the walks that Max is getting lately he isn’t being as aggressive as he needs to be. When he isn’t hitting well he has the tendency to look to walk instead of trying to hit his way out of it. Now, his OPS is over 1.000 yet he is looking to walk. This isn’t what the Dodgers need right now.
On to Game 6 and a successful bullpen experience.
Carry on.
Question:
Has Shohei ever played some 1b and has some experience there ?
Just a thought. Could then switch FF to DH.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Yeah, some really stupid posts today. Whoever predicted that was sadly correct.
I remember Michael Jordan going for about 40 in a playoff game when he was sick as a dog. Playing sick depends on the individual.
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