The Dodgers had MLB’s best record this season and won a five-game NLDS against an impressive Padres team, but no team has been hotter for longer than the Mets.
The franchises are meeting in the playoffs for the fourth time after the Dodgers won in the 1988 NLCS and the Mets turned the tables in the NLDS in 2006 and 2015.
The Dodgers had the league’s top offense and a relentless lineup during the regular season, with Shohei Ohtani at the top and Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez also difficult to get out.But the Mets’ lineup has flourished in October, sparked by Mark Vientos, Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor.
Among the many aspects of this series that would have been hard to believe heading into the season is the fact the Mets enter with a deeper and more stable rotation — with Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana all healthy and pitching well, and Kodai Senga ready to contribute after missing nearly the entire season with shoulder and calf issues.
Meanwhile, the supposedly pitching-rich Dodgers have Yoshinobu Yamamoto — who was terrific in the Game 5 clincher — Jack Flaherty and a shell-of-himself Walker Buehler, and had to rely on a bullpen game in a Game 4 shutout victory.
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