The New York Mets continued their magical season, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 12-6 on Friday to stay in the Major League Baseball playoff series.
Pete Alonso hit a three-run home run in the first inning and the Mets piled on five runs in the third to take an 8-1 lead, then held on to cut the deficit to 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. National League Championship Series.
The Dodgers, who had hoped to close out the series at the Mets’ Citi Field, will instead host Game 6 on Sunday, with a chance to return to the World Series for the first time since winning it all in 2020.”We will be ready”, Alonso promised. “We like opportunities.”
Andy Pages hit two home runs for the Dodgers, including a three-run hit that cut New York’s lead to 10-5 in the fifth inning. Mookie Betts’ solo home run in the sixth brought the Dodgers back within four runs, but the Mets held on.
Starling Marte hit three doubles and brought in three runs in four at-bats for New York. Francisco Lindor and Jesse Winker shined for the Mets, who had 14 batters and no strikeouts. The winner of the series will face the New York Yankees or Cleveland Guardians in the World Series.
The Yankees, thanks to a three-run home run by Giancarlo Stanton and a pair of runs in the top of the ninth, beat the Guardians 8-6 and moved to 3-1 in the American League Championship Series.
The Mets, with their backs against the wall, came out charging. They took a 3-0 lead early in the first half thanks to a towering home run to center field by Alonso that also scored Lindor and Brandon Nimmo.
The Dodgers got back a run with two outs in the second, when Enrique Hernandez homered on a wild pitch from Mets pitcher David Peterson to Shohei Ohtani.
But the Mets broke loose in the third, when Dodgers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty was not forgiven for failing to handle Alonso and Winker in the opener, with a double down the left fielder’s line that scored both.
That was before the Mets strung together three straight hits to make it 8-1, then Peterson allowed a solo home run to Pages in the fourth as the Dodgers continued to press, but the Mets extended their lead to 10-2 with a pair of runs early in the fourth and Los Angeles was never able to close the gap.
Yankees on the brink
In Cleveland, Stanton hit his fourth home run of the postseason and gave the Yankees a 6-2 lead in the sixth inning with a three-run hit off Guardians pitcher Cade Smith.
Smith had allowed the leadoff of the inning to Juan Soto. Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit a single before a sacrifice bunt by Jazz Chisholm brought in Stanton, who launched a 404-foot fastball.
The Yankees, stunned by the Guardians’ comeback win in the third game on Thursday, wasted no time in taking a 2-0 lead early in the first half thanks to Soto’s two-run home run.
Austin Wells also hit a home run for the Yankees, but the Guardians scored three runs in the seventh inning to take a 6-5 lead. Cleveland tied the game at 6-6 when David Fry’s soft ball was intercepted clumsily by Yankees pitcher Mark Leiter, whose throw sailed past first baseman Anthony Rizzo for Fry to reach second, while Bo Naylor, who had opened the inning with a double, he scored.
The Yankees, trying to return to the World Series for the first time since winning their 27th title in 2009, got two runs in the top of the ninth off Cleveland star Emmanuel Clase and held on for the win. Now the team can end the series with a win in the fifth game on Saturday.
“The key is to play another match, go on the pitch and try to win.” Soto said. “We forget about the series, we just try to go out there and win the game… that’s all we have to do.”
