Francisco Lindor, Mark Vientos power Mets past Dodgers in Game 2: Takeaways

LOS ANGELES — The New York Mets flipped the Hollywood script on Monday and evened the National League Championship Series.

With six runs in the first two innings, the Mets came out swinging against the previously unhittable Los Angeles Dodgers and won 7-3 in Game 2 at Dodger Stadium. Francisco Lindor homered in the first inning, Mark Vientos hit a grand slam in the second, and Sean Manaea pitched five excellent innings — before nearly losing it in the sixth — as the Mets tied the series at a game apiece heading into Game 3 on Wednesday at Citi Field.

It was, except for one-half inning, a near-perfect reversal of Game 1 when the Dodgers took an early lead and then shut down their opponent’s most dangerous hitters.

The Mets followed that path in Game 2. Lindor and Vientos were once again the tone-setter and game-changer for their offense, and Manaea breezed through five innings before running into trouble in the sixth. The bullpen limited the damage and preserved the lead.

The Dodgers’ top five hitters, all of them All-Stars this season, went 0-for-19 with five walks and nine strikeouts, including Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman in a row to end the game. The top five Mets hitters had gone 0-for-17 with seven strikeouts in Game 1. They went 7-for-22 with six RBIs and five runs scored in Game 2.

Mets show their resilience

After a listless loss in Game 1 in which they played their worst game in weeks, the Mets wasted no time bouncing back.

The Mets had done this so many times before. They often followed up brutal regular-season losses with inspiring wins. Their calling card in 2024 is resiliency.

They tend to get back up.

The Mets needed to make a quick statement in Game 2 and it was no surprise that Lindor delivered with a tone-setting leadoff home run. After fouling a ball off his leg, Lindor stepped back into the batter’s box and hammered a cutter to cap off an eight-pitch at-bat. There would be more two-strike hits, another key trend for the Mets this postseason. In the second inning, and down 0-2 in the count, Tyrone Taylor hit an RBI double. Later in the inning, on the ninth pitch he saw, Vientos continued his impressive stretch with a grand slam to make it 6-0.

Considering Kodai Senga’s brutal outing Sunday, Manaea needed to start strong. He did just that, opening his game with back-to-back strikeouts of Shohei Ohtani and Betts. The Mets started Senga on Sunday to give Manaea and Luis Severino (the Game 3 starter) an extra day of rest, given the veterans’ high workloads. Manaea’s solid start showed why the Mets thought it was a wise move.

By answering back in their familiar way, the Mets return to Citi Field looking to flex more of their starting pitching over the next two games.

Dodgers’ bullpen game doesn’t pay off

Going back to the well with a bullpen game in Game 2 made plenty of sense for the Dodgers. Their options made it so a bullpen game was necessary in one of the games of this series, and doing it in Game 2 — after Jack Flaherty’s seven innings in Game 1, and with an off day on Tuesday — was logical.

Where it backfired wasn’t the first inning, even though Lindor led off the afternoon with a solo shot to cap off an eight-pitch at-bat against Ryan Brasier and halt the Dodgers’ scoreless innings streak at 33. The big trouble came afterward

Rather than continue to deploy high-leverage arms as they did in Game 4 of the National League Division Series, the Dodgers opted to try to steal some innings on the front end with rookie Landon Knack. A five-run inning, capped off by a Vientos grand slam after an at-bat where Knack left several pitches over the plate, sunk the Dodgers early.

The Dodgers are missing a key leverage arm in Alex Vesia this series, which makes it more difficult to count up the outs with strictly bullpen arms. Involving Knack in some fashion was always the plan. But only getting two innings out of him made a 6-0 deficit all the more insurmountable against Sean Manaea.

Mets’ bullpen comes through at pivotal moments

The Mets’ two biggest bullpen acquisitions before the trade deadline were Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek, two right-handers who coincidentally are good friends. They were buy-low options; Maton had a 4.58 ERA with the Tampa Bay Rays while Stanek appeared to be the odd man out of the Seattle Mariners’ bullpen. In both deals, the Mets took on money (and parted with a minor-league outfielder in the case of Stanek) because they believed in the track records of both pitchers. The team thought both would help down the stretch.

Fast forward to the NLCS and Stanek and Maton are in familiar spots. They’re back to being trusted setup options late in games. And on Monday, they both did their jobs when the Mets needed them most.

Maton inherited a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning, taking over for Manaea with no outs. He allowed a two-run single, but that was the extent of the damage. Stanek relieved Maton with one out and a runner on first base in the seventh inning. He struck out Betts and then got Hernández to ground out to end the inning. Stanek then recorded two outs in the eighth inning before allowing a single and a walk. Edwin Díaz relieved him and got the final out.

The Mets lack reliable bridge options to Díaz, who has been shaky. They’ve done an admirable job of hiding this blemish with good starting pitching. But there will be other games like Monday when the Mets don’t get as much length as they want. That’s when they have to lean on Stanek and Maton.

(Top photo of Mark Vientos’ grand slam: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images))