Most of the fans in a sold-out crowd of 43,882 had left Citi Field in the eighth inning Thursday night, and the Dodgers pulled away in the late innings of a 10-2 victory in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series over the New York Mets that put them one victory away from the World Series.
But just two innings earlier, the joint was jumping, the chants of “Let’s go, Mets!” It got louder and louder, and the Mets, who had staged one dramatic comeback after another this month, were a big step away from making it a one-run game.
Three batters later, the stadium became so quiet that Grimace, the team’s unofficial mascot, could be heard crying into his purple fur, the Mets unable to make a dent in the nearly impenetrable back end of the Dodgers’ bullpen despite filling the bases without outs. .
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“Oh yeah,” reliever Evan Phillips he said, when asked if he noticed how quickly Citi Field went silent. “I think that was really discouraging for them. For us to be able to stop that kind of momentum, even with a five-run lead, was huge.”
Phillips, who has not allowed a run in 14⅓ innings in 11 playoff appearances since 2021, replaced the starter. Yoshinobu Yamamoto with one out and a runner on first in the bottom of the fifth and the Dodgers leading 5-2.
The right-hander, in his first appearance in the National League Championship Series, struck out Mark Vientos, who had hit a home run off Yamamoto in the first, with a 97 mph fastball and got Pete Alonso to ground out for one out. forced that ended the entry.
The Dodgers extended the lead to 7-2 in the sixth inning. Mookie Betts’ two-run homerbut the Mets threatened to take away a big chunk of that cushion when Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte singled and JD Martinez walked to lead off the bottom of the sixth.
Pitching coach Mark Prior came to the mound to chat with Phillips, who probably didn’t need reminding of the two grand slams the Mets hit this postseason, one by Francisco Lindor in the division series-clinching win over Philadelphia, the other of Winds in New York’s Game 2 victory over the Dodgers.
“Mark coming out gave me a second to reset and shift my focus to what I need to do, which is execute pitches and get guys out,” Phillips said. “He didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know, because we worked very hard to have a good plan.
“The biggest thing was we had contact guys coming in, guys who are very hard to swing and miss, so just try to hit good pitches and hopefully land on the right side.”
Phillips got ahead of José Iglesias with two strikes and the Mets second baseman threw a 96 mph fastball.
Pinch-hitter Jeff McNeil fouled on four pitches before making an 85 mph sweep under the zone for a ball. Phillips then came up and in with a 95 mph sinker, and McNeil hit a fly ball to shallow center field, with Nimmo holding at third.
With Phillips’ pitch count at 34, manager Dave Roberts summoned the right-hander. Blake Treinen to face pinch-hitter Jesse Winker, who loaded up a 95 mph fastball and lined a liner to the warning track in right field, where Betts made the inning-ending catch.
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“It was pretty loud, but I think I missed the barrel enough,” Treinen said. “I think the most important thing in those situations is to not try to think about what if and just focus on who is in the box. Try to execute your throws.
“I certainly got my way tonight against Winker. The bases were loaded, it was a 7-2 game, and if it had gone even better, it could have been a 7-6 game. But it wasn’t like that. “I’m grateful we were able to put in a zero.”
Treinen, who missed most of the last two seasons due to shoulder injuries, pitched a scoreless seventh to bring his scoreless streak to 21⅓ innings dating back to Aug. 24, 15⅓ innings in his final 15 games of the season. regular and six scoreless innings in five playoffs. games.
“Sounds like Blake Treinen, doesn’t it?” Phillips said. “It’s really great to see him get back to his normal form. He is someone I respect a lot. He’s been through a couple of tough years with injuries and is trying to recover from that. And I think this year you’re starting to see, you know, a lot of those old feelings coming back to him.”
Phillips, Treinen and Michael Kopech have pitched the most high-leverage innings, but the bullpen as a whole has allowed just 12 earned runs in 45 innings of nine playoff games for a 2.40 earned run average. If you remove the five runs that starter Landon Knack allowed in two innings of relief in the Game 2 loss, the bullpen’s ERA would be 1.47.
“The culture in the corral is that they just encourage each other,” Roberts said. “Regardless of when they get the ball, they’ll be ready when called upon, which is huge.”
A relief corps that has also received significant contributions from left-handers Alex Vesia and Anthony Banda and right-handers Daniel Hudson and Ryan Brasier has helped bring the Dodgers to the brink of their 22nd World Series and fourth in eight seasons.
“What I like most about our group is that we are all in this together,” Phillips said. “It’s been a lot of fun to watch each player play their part in this postseason, delivering it to one player after another, in any situation. Our mentality is that when the phone rings, we just do our job and get out there.”
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.