The Los Angeles Dodgers are showing why they have been the World Series favorites all year.
They put up yet another dominant performance over the New York Mets in Game 4 of the NLCS on Thursday, rolling to a 10-2 win and taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series.
Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani got things started with a bang, hitting his third homer of the postseason in the top of the first inning. New York answered right back, though, with a solo shot by Mark Vientos in the bottom half of the first.
The Dodgers got back-to-back, two-out hits in the third inning that each drove in a run, but the Mets quickly cut that deficit back to one.
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In the fourth, Mookie Betts drove in two runs with a double, putting L.A. up, 5-2. Two innings later, Betts blasted a two-run homer, and it was a five-run lead for the Dodgers. New York loaded the bases with none out in the sixth, but they did not get a run across, deflating the Citi Field crowd. To add insult to injury, the Dodgers added three runs in the eighth to ice it.
The win came despite the Dodgers resting Freddie Freeman, who has been playing with a badly sprained ankle. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn't commit to playing Freeman in all three games in New York, but he did say after Game 3 that he expected Freeman in Thursday's lineup. He didn't seem to be missed.
Ohtani scored four runs on the night, walking three times to go along with his homer. Betts, meanwhile, went 4-for-6.
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Now, the Dodgers are one win away from getting back to the World Series. They last won it all in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, but aside from that, they haven't won since 1988. It would also be their first appearance in the Fall Classic in a full season since 2018, when they lost to the Boston Red Sox.
As for the Mets, they'll need to win at home Friday, and then in Los Angeles on Sunday and Monday, in order to head back to the World Series. In all, Los Angeles has outscored the Mets, 30-5, this series.
This is hardly the first time the Mets have had their backs against the wall this October, but this is the first time that they'll have to survive and advance for quite some time.
It's yet to be determined who the Mets will pitch while facing elimination, as they will likely go with either Kodai Senga or David Peterson. Los Angeles, meanwhile, will go with Jack Flaherty.
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