An incredible playoff run ends sooner than we had hoped.
The Mets’ season came to an end in Los Angeles tonight, as the Dodgers bested them 10-5 in Game 6 of the NLCS. A few months ago, even the suggestion that the Mets might make it this far would have been laughed off. That doesn’t make the end of the season sting any less in the moment, though.
If you had to choose a pitcher to take the mound for a must-win game, it would have been Sean Manaea. Unfortunately, he didn’t have it in this game. He recorded just six outs and was charged with five runs. The Mets had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but Manaea’s outing wound up putting them behind for good. Phil Maton, who took over for Manaea and allowed an inherited runner to score, gave up a run of his own—the Dodgers’ sixth run of the night.
That said, Manaea shouldn’t take all of the blame for the loss. The Mets had a bunch of opportunities to score runs. Rarely did they take advantage of them.
With the team down 6-1 in the fourth, Mark Vientos hit a two-run home run to pull the Mets within three. That made is a legitimately close game at the time.
Edwin Díaz was called upon to pitch the fourth and fifth innings, and he performed admirably in unexpected circumstances. With a pair of scoreless innings, he kept the team in the game.
But Ryne Stanek gave up a run without recording an out in the sixth. Down 7-3, the Mets kept it fairly close with a sac fly in the top of the seventh.
Things got out of hand soon after that, though. With Reed Garrett having thrown a scoreless inning, Kodai Senga threw a scoreless inning of his own before things really went south. He gave up three runs in his second frame, recording just two outs as the Mets fell behind by six.
The Mets eked out a run in the ninth. Here’s hoping there’s a better ending in store next year.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
WPA to follow