A bad defensive inning bit the Mets early, Walker Buehler was resurrected from the dead, Kiké Hernández continued his October heroics, and the Mets were shut out again.
The Dodgers shut out the Mets 8-0 in Game 3 of the NLCS to take a 2-1 series lead, as the Mets offense repeated its lackluster performance from Game 1 and the Dodgers piled on in the later innings in the form of a trio of long balls by Kiké Hernández, Shohei Ohtani, and Max Muncy.
Luis Severino looked sharp early, setting down the Dodgers 1-2-3 in the first inning with the outs of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman coming via the strikeout. But Walker Buehler racked up two strikeouts of his own in the bottom of the first, showing flashes of the dominant pitcher he once was. Buehler would go on to strike out six Mets in four innings of work, inducing 18 swings and misses—tied for the most in the first four innings of any game of his career.
Walks and bad defense resulted in the Dodgers getting on the board first with two runs in the second. Max Muncy, who would go on to reach base five times on the evening, led off the inning with a walk. Teoscar Hernández then hit a dribbler in front of the plate and rather than going for the sure out at first, Francisco Alvarez unwisely tried to nab Muncy at second instead and failed to do so, resulting in no outs being recorded on the play. Gavin Lux then hit a comebacker to the mound and Severino bobbled the ball briefly, which squandered an opportunity to possibly get the out at second, but he was able to get Lux at first, as the runners advanced to second and third. Will Smith then hit yet another comebacker to the mound and Severino failed to field it cleanly and it went for an infield hit to score the Dodgers’ first run. Tommy Edman then hit a shot to deep right-center that seemed destined to clear the bases, but Tyrone Taylor made a fantastic diving grab (nearly colliding with Starling Marte in the process). Edman had to settle for a sacrifice fly, but it plated another run for the Dodgers to put them up 2-0.
Severino did well to limit the damage to just two runs and settled in after that when it looked like he wouldn’t be long for the game. But unlike so many times before, the Mets were unable to punch back this time. They loaded the bases against Buehler with one out in the bottom of the second on a José Iglesias infield hit (that should have arguably been an error charged to Edman since it was hit right at him and he just muffed it) sandwiched between two walks. But Franciscos Alvarez and Lindor struck out back-to-back to put an end to the threat, as the Mets continue to leave a village of runners on base this postseason.
The Dodgers also failed to capitalize on a bases-loaded opportunity in the third, but would get their insurance runs eventually—and plenty of them. Severino was almost coaxed through five innings, helped in part by a Gold Glove worthy play by Francisco Lindor on a hot shot off the bat of Mookie Betts for the second out. But Severino then gave up a single to Freddie Freeman and walked Max Muncy and was pulled in favor of Reed Garrett, who neutralized the threat with a strikeout of Teoscar Hernández. In the bottom of the fifth, Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos hit back-to-back deep fly balls off Michael Kopech that died on the warning track, which seemed to be a theme of the evening for the Mets.
The Dodgers got to Garrett in his second inning of work in the sixth. With two outs, Tommy Edman singled and Garrett balked to advance him to second. King of October Enrique Hernández then strode to the plate and continued his postseason heroics with a deep fly that didn’t die on the warning track and instead cleared over a leaping Brandon Nimmo and the left field wall for a two-run homer to give the Dodgers a more comfortable 4-0 lead. The Mets left yet more men on base in the bottom of the inning when José Iglesias grounded into a double play to end a burgeoning rally.
In the eighth, Tylor Megill made the mistake of letting Shohei Ohtani come up with men on base and he put the game out of reach with a towering three-run homer just inside the right field foul pole. The home run felt perfunctory given how lifeless the Mets offense looked for the second time in three games, but it was significant because the Dodgers were able to shift away from their high-leverage relievers (Ryan Brasier and Blake Treinen each contributed a scoreless inning) and use their lower-leverage arms instead. Max Muncy added another run to Megill’s ledger with a solo shot in the top of the ninth and Ben Casparius pitched two scoreless innings in relief to finish this garbage fire of a baseball game and seal the victory for the Dodgers.
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Big Mets winner: Tyrone Taylor, +5.3% WPA
Big Mets loser: Francisco Lindor, -13.9% WPA
Mets pitchers: -16.2% WPA
Mets hitters: -33.8% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Tyrone Taylor walks to load the bases in the second with one out, +7.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Tommy Edman advances to second on a balk by Reed Garrett in the sixth, -14.9% WPA