Minutes before the start of the game, Derek Jeter and David Ortiz, commentators for the FOX Sports network, were asked what should change for the Mets if they wanted to avoid an early break in a decisive game where survival was at stake.
Both Hall of Famers agreed on one phrase “Pete Alonso must lead the offense,” and as if he were listening, the first baseman opened the floodgates of a brutal attack that led the Mets to a 12-5 victory over the Dodgers on Friday night.
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With two men on base, Alonso shook off a brief lethargy that had spread throughout the start of this Championship Series and hit a home run that set the aggressive tone for a lineup that sank the Los Angeles pitching to the tune of 14 hits, seven of them extra-base hits.
Perhaps only at Citi Field was there a belief that the Mets could be reborn before the series moved to California, as the Dodgers had looked immense 24 hours earlier and were just one win away from reaching the big October Classic for the first time since 2020.
The other positive clue for the Angels was that on the mound was Jack Flaherty, who had been brilliant in the first game of this particular matchup, when he pitched seven immaculate innings of only two hits allowed to these same Mets.
Many are still wondering what could have happened from one start to the next, because on this occasion Flaherty was beaten so badly that when he left, after three innings of work, the scoreboard already reflected the visitors’s debacle with eight runs, all of them earned.
Manager Dave Roberts may have delayed removing him, thinking he might eventually regain his best form, but by the time he did it was too late as the home team’s punishment was too long and burdensome.
Thank goodness the Mets continued to put runs on the scoreboard against the relievers to put the game in a good place because the Dodgers discounted five supported by two home runs – in the fourth and fifth innings – by Cuban rookie Andy Pages, who also drove in four runs for his team.
The Angels’s approach continued in the sixth with another home run by Mookie Betts, but that was the last important action by the visitors who remain in command of this series and hope to finish it all at Dodger Stadium.
But the Mets’s promise lives on we’re not going to say goodbye without fighting until the end in a matchup that has been a true carousel of emotions, full of contrasting games where one team stands out one day and another shines brightly the next.
However, Ryne Stanek’s good relief performance with 2.1 innings in which he only allowed one run and struck out four left everything ready for Edwin Diaz to come in to close early in the eighth inning. In addition to a new run by the Mets, it gave the victory to those from Queens in the fifth game of the Series.
Now the Mets will have to travel to Southern California to face the Dodgers in Game 6 of the Championship Series, which now remains 3-2 in favor of the Los Angeles team.
This game will be this Sunday at Dodgers Stadium and Carlos Mendoza has chosen Sean Manaea to take the mound and try to tie the series and force a seventh and decisive game.
