The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Mets 2-10 this Thursday and were one victory away from advancing to the National League World Series with a brilliant performance by Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts.
The Dodgers (3-1) far surpassed the Mets for the second consecutive game at Citi Field in New York and will now try to put an end to the Championship Series, which is played in the best of seven games, this Friday with Jack Flaherty on the mound.
Ohtani wasted no time and hit a home run in the first turn of the game, against Colombian left-hander José Quintana, to mark the overwhelming pace of the Dodgers.
Those from Queens responded at the end of that first inning, with a home run by the Dominican Mark Vientos, against the Japanese, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, to tie the match (1-1).
The Dodgers scored two more runs in the third inning, with a double by Tommy Edman and an undisputed infield hit by Puerto Rican Kiké Hernández.
The Mets responded by scoring one more run in the bottom of that third inning, when Brandon Nimmo managed to beat the throw to first base, breaking a double elimination play, allowing Venezuelan Francisco Álvarez to score from third base.
Los Angeles returned to the attack in the fourth inning, when Mookie Betts hit a double down the left field side, to bring Ohtani and Michale Taylor to the buzzer.
Betts did damage again at the height of the sixth rung of the game, when the ball disappeared from the park against reliever Phil Maton, dragging Ohtani back to the register.
The Mets tried to get back on track, when they filled all three bases with no outs, at the end of the sixth inning, but the Dodgers’ pitching managed to retire Cuban José Iglesias, Jeff McNeil and Jesse Winker, ending the threat , without having his plate stepped on.
The Dodgers added three more runs to the board in the eighth inning, the first two of them on a two-base hit by Edman, which allowed Betts and Kevin Kiermaier to score.
Edman scored the third run of that eighth inning, RBI by Will Smith.
Yamamoto left the mound after striking out eight batters in 4.1 innings, in which he allowed two runs, and the victory fell to reliever Evan Phillips (2-0), who worked 1.1 scoreless innings, with two strikeouts.
Quintana (0-1) was unable to stop the Dodgers’ powerful attack and left the game after pitching 3.1 innings, in which he was punished with five hits and five runs, while only striking out two batters. crediting the defeat to the Mets.
For the Dodgers, Kiké Hernández had an RBI.
For the Mets, Vientos scored and drove in a run.
