While the regular-season MVP awards seem to be all but locked up, there is still the matter of NLCS and ALCS MVP, with the World Series MVP race on the horizon.
Shohei Ohtani is the heavy favorite to win the National League regular-season MVP, and he’s also atop the oddsboard in the NLCS race.
However, while Aaron Judge has the regular-season American League MVP award all but wrapped up, he has some competition from a few teammates in the ALCS MVP tilt.
Check out the odds at DraftKings Sportsbook as of Oct. 15.
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2024 NLCS MVP ODDS:
Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers: +270 (bet $10 to win $37 total) Francisco Lindor, Mets: +400 (bet $10 to win $50 total) Mookie Betts, Dodgers: +600 (bet $10 to win $70 total) Mark Vientos, Mets: +900 (bet $10 to win $100 total)
2024 ALCS MVP ODDS:
Juan Soto, Yankees: +200 (bet $10 to win $30 total) Aaron Judge, Yankees: +400 (bet $10 to win $50 total) Giancarlo Stanton, Yankees: +600 (bet $10 to win $70 total) Jose Ramirez, Guardians: +900 (bet $10 to win $100 total)
The rapid nature of the MLB postseason causes the odds to shift day-to-day, but as of Tuesday afternoon, Ohtani and Soto are the favorites.
Through two games in the NLCS, in seven at-bats, Ohtani has two runs, two hits and an RBI. He’s also been walked three times and struck out twice.
Mets superstar Francisco Lindor, second on the NL oddsboard, has one home run and one RBI through two games.
As for the ALCS, Soto had one home run, two hits and an RBI in Game 1. He’s been walked once and struck out once.
Judge is second on the AL oddsboard, despite not tallying a hit in Game 1 against the Guardians. He led baseball in home runs during the regular season, but has yet to hit a dinger in the playoffs.
Soto, Stanton crush homers, lifting Yankees to Game 1 win over Guardians
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NEW YORK — This is why the Yankees are paying Carlos Rodón $162 million over six years: to have a top-notch poker face.
Rodon’s biggest challenge taking the mound for Game 1 of the American League Championship Series wasn’t navigating Cleveland’s dangerous lineup. Rodón’s greatest enemy was actually himself.
When the veteran allows his emotions to take control over his outing, things can quickly get out of whack. It’s what happened in his first start this postseason against the Royals; he was amped too early and too often — sticking his tongue out and gaping after a first-inning strikeout — and allowed his focus to slip away from the task at hand. He was pulled after coughing up four earned runs in just 3.2 innings against Kansas City.
But he learned a lot in the week between his next playoff start. He studied Gerrit Cole, received advice from Andy Pettitte, and said he would be better his next time out. Even so, it’s one thing to do all the prep, but it’s another to actually execute on the mound — no less in a playoff start.
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Finally, in his team’s 5-2 win over the Guardians on Monday night at Yankee Stadium, the fiery left-hander put his career 11.37 postseason ERA in the rearview and pitched with authority.
“The goal was to stay in control,” Rodón said. “Stay in control of what I can do, physically and emotionally. I thought I executed that well tonight.”
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He was being modest. Rodón struck out nine batters and allowed just one run on three hits across six innings, and kept his emotions in check every time. But it was easy to tell this was a battle for Rodón. Being nonreactive isn’t exactly second nature for him. He seemed to be putting as much effort into controlling his emotions as he was into his pitch diet of fastballs, sliders, curveballs and changeups. Rather than acknowledge the crowd’s raucous energy with some of his own, Rodón rolled his shoulders back and kept his head down on the mound. The southpaw proceeded to register 25 swings and misses.
He was locked in, and it manifested.
Rodón’s only blemish of the night came on a Brayan Rocchio home run to lead off the sixth inning. But there was no ensuing meltdown. There was no look of befuddlement as he watched Rocchio’s long ball sail over the left-field wall. He retired the next three batters and finished his outing by pointing his glove at Aaron Judge, who ran down a rocket off José Ramírez’s bat for the final out of the sixth. Rodón sent down the Guardians slugger all three times he faced him.
“I think he was very aware of what the last outing ended up being and just how the emotions got away from him early,” Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said. “That was going to be a focus for him throughout the game. Each inning you could tell he was trying to stay steady and be neutral about it and just keep collecting outs.”
While Rodón went to work, the Yankees piled on. Juan Soto slammed his first postseason home run as a Yankee in the third inning, putting New York on the board with a 1-0 lead. Giancarlo Stanton added insurance in the seventh with his second home run of the postseason, which was his 13th career playoff jack since 2018. Stanton has a 1.244 OPS in five postseason games this October. But while Soto, Stanton and Aaron Judge all collected RBIs in the Game 1 victory, it was Rodón who stood out as the game changer.
“He was the driver tonight,” Stanton said of Rodón. “Juan got us going on the offensive side, but Carlos was holding them down and giving us a chance to score and add to it.”
Rodón didn’t achieve this picture of poise on his own.
Days after the Royals detected that his emotions were running high and sent him packing in the fourth inning, Rodón sought out advice from Pettitte, the former Yankees southpaw and five-time World Series champion, on how to keep a good poker face on the mound. Pettitte, currently in an advisor role with the Yankees, won 63.3% of his postseason decisions in part by refusing to allow the opponent in on what he was thinking and feeling. Rodón said Pettitte’s advice left an impression.
Then, while Cole dominated the Royals in Kansas City last Thursday, Rodón leaned on the dugout railing and closely watched his every reaction. Captivated, Rodón kept his eyes focused on Cole even as drama unfolded between Anthony Volpe and Maikel Garcia at second base. Rodón watched as Cole became agitated without letting the situation ruin what had been a strong outing.
“You can tell he gets a little pissed off,” Rodón said of Cole. “But he kind of just keeps it in frame and gets back on the mound. They do end up scoring a run, but he keeps them to one run. The biggest thing I saw from him in the seventh, he didn’t react every inning. If you watched him come out, it’s just like a robot walking to the dugout. Then at the end of the seventh, it’s a big roar because he knows, I did my job. I think that’s one thing that resonated with me from that start.”
Rodón tried to be like Cole the robot against Cleveland and, for the most part, he was. His six innings of one-run ball weren’t just important for the Yankees, who took a 1-0 series lead over the Guardians to begin the ALCS, but an enormous response to the criticism manager Aaron Boone received for going with Rodón in the first place. With Cole slotted for Game 2 on four days’ rest, Boone was choosing between right-hander Clarke Schmidt or Rodón for the series opener. Cleveland was the third-best offensive team in the AL against left-handers in the regular season, so no one would’ve blamed Boone if he opted to start Schmidt in Game 1.
But Rodón was signed by the Yankees for moments like Monday; a packed house of 47,264 in the Bronx, doing his part as the rotation’s lethal 1-2 punch alongside Cole, all while being accountable in front of the zoo that is the New York media.
The mental and physical flow Rodón realized in Game 1 was the elixir to the ghastly postseason ERA he brought into Monday night’s outing. This was exactly what the Yankees expected from Rodón when they made him the highest-paid pitcher in the 2023 free-agent class. After being limited to just 14 starts because of injuries last year, and posting a dreadful 6.85 ERA in the process, this was Rodón’s year to start earning his contract. He showed up to spring training noticeably slimmer, then stayed out of the trainer’s room all season, and bounced back with a 3.96 ERA across a career-high 32 healthy starts and 175 innings.
Rodón’s 26-week stretch of being a workhorse in the regular season helped the Yankees get to this point, particularly when Cole missed the first two-plus months with an elbow injury. But Rodón can give the Yankees a bigger, more important lift by replicating this routine his next time out.
The Yankees are three wins from advancing to the World Series. Rodón can count on one hand how many more times he will need his poker face.
Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
LOS ANGELES — After the Dodgers intentionally walked Francisco Lindor in the second inning Monday afternoon, the 24-year-old hitting behind the Mets‘ MVP candidate looked perplexed. Mark Vientos raised his sunglasses and tipped his head to the side, almost in disbelief that they wanted to pitch to him.
“I took it personal,” Vientos said after launching the second grand slam of the Mets’ postseason in a 7-3 win that evened the National League Championship Series at one game apiece.
If the Dodgers didn’t know much earlier this year about the Mets third baseman, who was 10 games into his 2024 season the last time these teams faced off in the regular season, they do now.
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“I mean, I want to be up there during that at-bat,” Vientos continued. “I want them to walk Lindor in that situation, put me up there.”
Vientos, now a fixture hitting near the top of the Mets’ lineup, wasn’t even the likeliest 24-year-old to earn his team’s job at the hot corner this year. The 2017 second-round pick’s season began at Syracuse, and he sported a .610 OPS over parts of two big-league seasons entering this year.
But this version of Vientos, who made the Dodgers pay for the free pass, is not like previous iterations.
“My man’s got a lot of confidence in himself,” Sean Manaea said. “I love that.”
Why wouldn’t he?
On Monday, Vientos’ blast gifted the Mets starter an early 6-0 lead that provided plenty of cushion during his five innings of work.
“Ever since he got here,” Manaea continued, “he’s been doing some crazy things.”
When the season began, Brett Baty was the Mets’ starting third baseman. But the former top prospect’s struggles out of the gate opened a door, and Vientos, who was recalled on May 15, stepped through with a giant leap. By the time Baty was optioned on May 31, it was clear the full-time third-base job belonged to Vientos, who never looked back.
While his name might not hold the same weight or prestige as perennial third base sensations like Manny Machado or Alex Bregman, Vientos finished the season with a higher wRC+ than both of them. In fact, among MLB third basemen with at least 400 plate appearances this season, the only ones with a higher OPS than Vientos were José Ramírez and Rafael Devers.
“The power is real,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
It is not a coincidence that his ascension coincided with his team’s.
From Vientos’ call-up through the end of the year, New York was one of three teams to compile 70 wins. His steady rise both in production and the Mets’ lineup — he went from hitting in the bottom half of the order in June to behind Lindor in September — helped turn around a team that was 11 games under .500 in early June.
In regular-season games Vientos started this year, the Mets were 61-44. In games he didn’t, they were 28-29.
“He’s embracing every opportunity and enjoying the ride,” Lindor said. “There’s one thing that Mark doesn’t lack, that’s confidence.”
Lindor is the only Mets player worth more WAR than Vientos. They both had exactly 26 home runs from the time Vientos was promoted in mid-May through the end of the year.
Now, they’ve both come up huge through the team’s magical October run.
For Lindor, there was the game-winning ninth-inning homer he launched against the rival Braves to get them into the playoffs and the go-ahead grand slam in Philadelphia that would send the Mets through the NLDS to face the Dodgers.
When the Mets seemed to forget who they were in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium, getting blanked for the first time this postseason and looking uncompetitive in the process, Lindor got them back on business hours in Monday’s matinee with a leadoff home run that ended the Dodgers’ postseason record-tying streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 33.
So, you can’t blame them for giving Lindor a free base with two on, two out and a bullpen game threatening to get out of hand quickly.
Unless, of course, you’re Vientos.
“They would rather take a chance on me than him,” Vientos said. “But I use it as motivation. I’m like, ‘All right, you want me up, I’m going to show you.'”
In a postseason field filled with decorated stars, that self-belief is helping a less-heralded Met stand out.
In the Mets’ first game of the playoffs, it was Vientos’ single off Aaron Ashby in the fifth inning that broke a tie and ended up being the deciding hit.
In their first game of the NLDS, Vientos’ game-tying single in the eighth inning sparked a five-run frame in a comeback win.
In Game 2 of the NLDS, Vientos became the third-youngest player to record 10 total bases in a playoff game.
On Monday, he became the youngest player to hit a grand slam in LCS history. Vientos would add a single in his next at-bat for his sixth multi-hit game in nine postseason appearances.
He now leads all players this October in hits and RBIs.
“He’s very confident,” Lindor repeated. “He’s a player who believes in himself. He doesn’t back down.”
Despite the self-assuredness and swagger, Vientos has still demonstrated preternatural poise to consistently deliver when presented opportunities.
On his grand slam, Vientos said he wasn’t thinking about going deep. But when Landon Knack lofted a four-seamer right down the middle on the ninth pitch of the at-bat?
“Yeah,” Vientos said, “I wasn’t going to miss it.”
As he has done to opponents so often this month, and throughout a 2024 season that has solidified his place as the third baseman of the future in New York, Vientos delivered.
While his 391-foot drive would have been a flyout at Citi Field and 23 other major-league ballparks, all that mattered was at Dodger Stadium, it kept going, and going and going … until it dropped over the wall in right-center field, lifting a Mets team that had found its form again and dismantling the Dodgers’ hopes early in a bullpen game.
“You didn’t see a big swing,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It was, let me put it in play, let me stay in the big part of the ballpark, and he was able to drive that one. You see the next at-bat against a lefty, just going the other way with ease and just shoot the ball the other way. That’s a sign of not only a good hitter but someone that is mature and is under control.”
The Mets have demonstrated all year they’re not going to fold.
In Game 2, after their worst loss of the postseason, they punched back behind their MVP candidate and the 24-year-old behind him who’s playing like one.
“That’s who he is,” Lindor said. “I’m glad he took it personal. He’s got to continue to climb.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
Juan Soto homered during New York’s three-run third inning, Carlos Rodón got his first postseason win and the Yankees took advantage of Cleveland’s wildness in a 5-2 victory on Monday night in Game 1 of the AL Championship Series.
Cleveland became the second team to throw a pair of run-scoring wild pitches in a postseason inning and tied a postseason record with five overall. Guardians pitchers walked six in a nine-batter span and nine overall.
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Giancarlo Stanton added his 13th career postseason homer for the Yankees, who are seeking a record 41st AL pennant. New York batters have walked 36 times in five postseason games.
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Rodón rebounded from the Yankees’ only loss in the Division Series, limiting the Guardians to a pair of singles before Brayan Rocchio’s sixth-inning homer.
Steven Kwan pulled the Guardians within three runs when he extended his postseason hitting streak to a team-record 11 games with an RBI single in the eighth off Clay Holmes.
Luke Weaver entered with runners at the corners. He struck out pinch-hitter Will Brennan and retired José Ramírez on a groundout, and then followed a leadoff walk in the ninth with three straight strikeouts for his fourth save this postseason.
Juan Soto & Giancarlo Stanton both crush homers, lifting the Yankees to a 5-2 win over the Guardians
Game 2 is at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. Entering this year, teams taking the opener of a series with a 2-3-2 format have won 66 of 99 times.
Before a sellout crowd of 47,264 that included pop star Taylor Swift, Soto hit his first postseason homer for New York when he drove a high slider from Alex Cobb into the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center.
Making his first playoff appearance in 11 years, Cobb walked the bases loaded in the third and rookie reliever Joey Cantillo threw a pair of run-scoring wild pitches.
Cantillo had four wild pitches overall, one shy of the record for a postseason game set by Rick Ankiel of St. Louis in a 2000 NL Division Series opener against Atlanta. The only other time a team scored twice on wild pitches in a postseason inning was by Minnesota against Oakland in the 2002 AL Division Series.
Rodón struck out nine and walked none, getting 25 misses among 53 swings, matching the fourth-most misses in a postseason game since pitch-tracking began in 2008. His pitches broke so much that catcher Austin Wells had to throw to first three times on strikeouts for the putouts.
Cobb dropped in 0-2 in the playoffs, making just his fifth start in a season limited by injuries. He threw 36 of 65 pitches for strikes, getting only one swing and miss, and allowed three runs, five hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: LHP Nestor Cortes (flexor strain in pitching elbow) is to throw a second bullpen session Wednesday and is a possibility for the World Series roster, should the Yankees advance.
UP NEXT
Yankees RHP Gerrit Cole makes his third postseason start on Wednesday after beating Kansas City in the Division Series clincher. He is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA this postseason. RHP Tanner Bibee starts for the Guardians. He had a 2.08 ERA without a decision in a pair of Division Series starts against Detroit. Bibee has pitched once at Yankee Stadium, his second big league outing in May 2023. He allowed two runs over 5 1/3 innings in a no-decision, giving up Anthony Volpe’s opposite-field homer over the right field short porch.
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Lindor has been on a tear this postseason, and is one of eight players with six or more RBI after Monday. The Mets will need a big peformance from him throughout the series against the Dodgers and we expect he’ll do so. Ohtani is a good choice here too as he’s one of the best power hitters in baseball and already has five RBI himself after Game 2 of the series.
Prediction: Francisco Lindor
2. Which pitcher will have the MOST STRIKEOUTS in the LCS round?
While Manaea has been electric with 17 strikeouts in three games played this postseason, it’s hard to go against the reigning AL Cy Young award winner in Cole. He has eight Ks himself in two games played in the playoffs, and had 99 in 17 regular season starts this year. He is one of eight pitchers to have over 570 strikeouts in regular season play since 2022, and is the only one of those eight whose team is still in the playoffs.
Prediction: Gerrit Cole
3. Which trio of players includes the 2024 NLCS MVP?
The Dodgers entered the season as the betting favorites to win the World Series, and they’ve consistently proven that they are the team to beat throughout the year. Los Angeles had the best record in baseball, finished top four in the league in team batting average (.258), home runs (233) and runs batted in (815)— and have a generational player in Ohtani. He’s likely going to win the regular season MVP, so we like him or either of the other Dodgers players to take home the NLCS award. It’s also worth mentioning that Hernandez hit 33 home runs this season, and already has two in seven playoff games along with a .250 batting average.
Prediction: Ohtani/T. Hernandez/Lux
4. Order by total TEAM RUNS in Game 4 of the ALCS and NLCS (highest to lowest)
New York’s trio of Aaron Juge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton is one of most prolific power-hitting trios baseball has seen in quite some time. They combined for 126 home runs and a whopping .285 batting average in the regular season— not to mention they did that with Stanton missing 48 games. It’ll be an uphill battle for the Guardians’ pitching staff to quell this sort of firepower. The Dodgers are a reasonable choice here as well to have the most runs, but the Mets pitching staff has been on a tear this postseason— having thrown 76 strikeouts after Monday.
Prediction: Yankees, Dodgers, Mets, Guardians
5. Which trio will have the most combined HOME RUNS in the LCS round?
We said it above and we’ll say it again. Judge, Soto and Stanton are an incredible trio that smash home runs. While the guardians had the third-best team ERA (3.61) in the regular season, that number jumps to 5.46 when looking at their six matchups against the Yankees. The trio had nine homers in those games with a batting average of .288.
LOS ANGELES — After the Dodgers intentionally walked Francisco Lindor in the second inning Monday afternoon, the 24-year-old hitting behind the Mets‘ MVP candidate looked perplexed. Mark Vientos raised his sunglasses and tipped his head to the side, almost in disbelief that they wanted to pitch to him.
“I took it personal,” Vientos said after launching the second grand slam of the Mets’ postseason in a 7-3 win that evened the National League Championship Series at one game apiece.
If the Dodgers didn’t know much earlier this year about the Mets third baseman, who was 10 games into his 2024 season the last time these teams faced off in the regular season, they do now.
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“I mean, I want to be up there during that at-bat,” Vientos continued. “I want them to walk Lindor in that situation, put me up there.”
Vientos, now a fixture hitting near the top of the Mets’ lineup, wasn’t even the likeliest 24-year-old to earn his team’s job at the hot corner this year. The 2017 second-round pick’s season began at Syracuse, and he sported a .610 OPS over parts of two big-league seasons entering this year.
But this version of Vientos, who made the Dodgers pay for the free pass, is not like previous iterations.
“My man’s got a lot of confidence in himself,” Sean Manaea said. “I love that.”
Why wouldn’t he?
On Monday, Vientos’ blast gifted the Mets starter an early 6-0 lead that provided plenty of cushion during his five innings of work.
“Ever since he got here,” Manaea continued, “he’s been doing some crazy things.”
When the season began, Brett Baty was the Mets’ starting third baseman. But the former top prospect’s struggles out of the gate opened a door, and Vientos, who was recalled on May 15, stepped through with a giant leap. By the time Baty was optioned on May 31, it was clear the full-time third-base job belonged to Vientos, who never looked back.
While his name might not hold the same weight or prestige as perennial third base sensations like Manny Machado or Alex Bregman, Vientos finished the season with a higher wRC+ than both of them. In fact, among MLB third basemen with at least 400 plate appearances this season, the only ones with a higher OPS than Vientos were José Ramírez and Rafael Devers.
“The power is real,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
It is not a coincidence that his ascension coincided with his team’s.
From Vientos’ call-up through the end of the year, New York was one of three teams to compile 70 wins. His steady rise both in production and the Mets’ lineup — he went from hitting in the bottom half of the order in June to behind Lindor in September — helped turn around a team that was 11 games under .500 in early June.
In regular-season games Vientos started this year, the Mets were 61-44. In games he didn’t, they were 28-29.
“He’s embracing every opportunity and enjoying the ride,” Lindor said. “There’s one thing that Mark doesn’t lack, that’s confidence.”
Lindor is the only Mets player worth more WAR than Vientos. They both had exactly 26 home runs from the time Vientos was promoted in mid-May through the end of the year.
Now, they’ve both come up huge through the team’s magical October run.
For Lindor, there was the game-winning ninth-inning homer he launched against the rival Braves to get them into the playoffs and the go-ahead grand slam in Philadelphia that would send the Mets through the NLDS to face the Dodgers.
When the Mets seemed to forget who they were in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium, getting blanked for the first time this postseason and looking uncompetitive in the process, Lindor got them back on business hours in Monday’s matinee with a leadoff home run that ended the Dodgers’ postseason record-tying streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 33.
So, you can’t blame them for giving Lindor a free base with two on, two out and a bullpen game threatening to get out of hand quickly.
Unless, of course, you’re Vientos.
“They would rather take a chance on me than him,” Vientos said. “But I use it as motivation. I’m like, ‘All right, you want me up, I’m going to show you.'”
In a postseason field filled with decorated stars, that self-belief is helping a less-heralded Met stand out.
In the Mets’ first game of the playoffs, it was Vientos’ single off Aaron Ashby in the fifth inning that broke a tie and ended up being the deciding hit.
In their first game of the NLDS, Vientos’ game-tying single in the eighth inning sparked a five-run frame in a comeback win.
In Game 2 of the NLDS, Vientos became the third-youngest player to record 10 total bases in a playoff game.
On Monday, he became the youngest player to hit a grand slam in LCS history. Vientos would add a single in his next at-bat for his sixth multi-hit game in nine postseason appearances.
He now leads all players this October in hits and RBIs.
“He’s very confident,” Lindor repeated. “He’s a player who believes in himself. He doesn’t back down.”
Despite the self-assuredness and swagger, Vientos has still demonstrated preternatural poise to consistently deliver when presented opportunities.
On his grand slam, Vientos said he wasn’t thinking about going deep. But when Landon Knack lofted a four-seamer right down the middle on the ninth pitch of the at-bat?
“Yeah,” Vientos said, “I wasn’t going to miss it.”
As he has done to opponents so often this month, and throughout a 2024 season that has solidified his place as the third baseman of the future in New York, Vientos delivered.
While his 391-foot drive would have been a flyout at Citi Field and 23 other major-league ballparks, all that mattered was at Dodger Stadium, it kept going, and going and going … until it dropped over the wall in right-center field, lifting a Mets team that had found its form again and dismantling the Dodgers’ hopes early in a bullpen game.
“You didn’t see a big swing,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It was, let me put it in play, let me stay in the big part of the ballpark, and he was able to drive that one. You see the next at-bat against a lefty, just going the other way with ease and just shoot the ball the other way. That’s a sign of not only a good hitter but someone that is mature and is under control.”
The Mets have demonstrated all year they’re not going to fold.
In Game 2, after their worst loss of the postseason, they punched back behind their MVP candidate and the 24-year-old behind him who’s playing like one.
“That’s who he is,” Lindor said. “I’m glad he took it personal. He’s got to continue to climb.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
Lindor added to his storybook season with a leadoff homer in the first inning against Ryan Brasier. Viento delivered during New York’s five-run second, connecting for a grand slam against Landon Knack.
Francisco Lindor crushes a leadoff home run, giving Mets an early lead over Dodgers
Sean Manaea opened Game 2 with four shutout innings for New York. He was charged with three runs, two earned, and two hits in five-plus innings. Closer Edwin Diaz earned a four-out save.
Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and two walks. He remains hitless with the bases empty in his first postseason.
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Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Wednesday in New York.
The Mets jumped all over the Dodgers after flopping in the series opener.
Lindor fouled off four consecutive pitches from Brasier before sending a 395-foot shot to right for his leadoff homer.
Knack took over for LA in the second and gave up a leadoff single to Starling Marte and then walked Jesse Winker. One out later, Tyrone Taylor doubled to left, scoring Marte.
After Francisco Alvarez popped to shortstop, Lindor was intentionally walked to load the bases. Vientos sent a 391-foot shot to center for the third grand slam in Mets playoff history. That extended the lead to 6-0 and silenced the sellout crowd of 52,926.
Mets’ Mark Vientos hits a GRAND SLAM against the Dodgers | MLB on FOX
It was the Mets’ second slam of the playoffs. Lindor hit a go-ahead slam in Game 4 of the NL Division Series against Philadelphia. Edgardo Alfonzo had the club’s first playoff slam in 1999.
The Dodgers had the potential tying run at the plate with two outs in the eighth.
Tommy Edman singled and Max Muncy walked before the Mets brought in Diaz. They moved up on a double steal before Kiké Hernández flied out to shallow right field to end the threat.
After Muncy homered leading off the fifth, the Dodgers rallied in the sixth to trail 6-3, reigniting the crowd.
Dodgers’ Max Muncy CRUSHES a solo home run against the Mets | MLB on FOX
Manaea issued consecutive walks to Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández to open the inning. Freddie Freeman grounded into a high bouncing fielder’s choice to second that Jose Iglesias couldn’t field cleanly. Hernández was safe at second on the error as Manaea exited.
Edman singled to right off Phil Maton with two strikes, scoring Betts and Hernández. Muncy walked to load the bases again and bring up Kiké Hernández.
He grounded into the glove of third baseman Vientos, who initially bobbled the ball before throwing to second, where Muncy slid into the leg of Iglesias. Pete Alonso then kept his foot on the bag as he stretched to haul in Iglesias’ throw.
The Dodgers challenged the double-play call, but it was upheld and the inning ended.
Manaea was the first left-handed starter the Dodgers have faced this postseason. They saw him plenty during his time with San Diego in 2022 and San Francisco last year. But he changed his delivery midway through this season with the Mets, dropping his arm slot and releasing the ball more horizontally.
The Mets took advantage of hard-throwing Dodgers rookie Edgardo Henriquez with an insurance run in the ninth.
