I decided the other day that I’m a series guy now, by which I mean that in playoff baseball, I’m cheering for the series. The Dodgers? The Mets? Don’t really care, guys. What I’m worried about is getting a really good NLCS out of this. Here’s what I think that means:
Game 3: Mets Take 2–1 Lead, Walker Buehler Struggles
Whether Buehler comes back in Game 7 or not, if you’re scripting this NLCS you need to stoke questioning about whether Buehler’s still got anything in the tank after all the injuries. You need to instill some doubt. Do that while also giving the Mets an extra helping of belief, and you’ve got a good story going. You’ve got a good series.
Game 4: Mets Take 3–1 Lead, Mookie Betts Looks Like He Pulled His Hamstring
In a lot of series, you need a 2–2 situation to get fans locked in. Here, though, 3–1 in favor of the Mets is the dream. It sets up either:
- An emphatic Mets victory in Game 5, a pennant-clinching win on their own home field, or
- A resounding Game 5 rebuke, a Dodgers answer to the last three games which sends the series back to Los Angeles and gets Mets fans panicking.
Why should Mookie Betts get hurt? Added intrigue, and a round of all of us questioning whether these Dodgers are just too beat up.
Game 5: Dodgers Trail Early, Flaherty Exits in the Fourth, Dodgers Come Back and Win on Betts Scoring From Second on a Single
Whether the Mets lose this series or not, the cosmic powers in control must make Mets fans fear the worst thing possible happening to their team. Nothing would prime Mets fans more for devastation than a Dodgers comeback in Game 5 to extend the series. Add in a big Betts moment? Game on. Series on.
Game 6: Dodgers Dominate, Shohei Ohtani Hits Three Home Runs
There’s something about Chavez Ravine turning into a gigantic party. There’s something special to that. The revelry. The belief. The dejection piling on top of Mets’ fans Sunday scaries right after those same Mets fans talked themselves back into their team on the travel day. Add in a big night from Ohtani? During a shitty Sunday Night Football game where Davante Adams only catches three passes on nine targets? Again: Some series are best as steady duels, and some are better as rollercoasters. This suits itself to a rollercoaster. If there was ever a rollercoaster franchise, that franchise was the Mets.
Game 7: TBD, But Ohtani Needs to Bat in the Ninth Representing the Tying or Winning Run
Here’s the deal with Game 7: It depends on what happens in the ALCS. If the Guardians take down the Yankees, then I think it’s more fun for the Mets to make the World Series. Two real sufferers of franchises. Two underdog teams. Guardians/Dodgers isn’t a bad World Series or anything, but it’s an awkward match.
If the Yankees are pounding teams? Give us Yankees/Dodgers. I know New York wants a Subway Series, but America wants the best teams and the biggest stars, by which I obviously mean a shockingly activated Joe Kelly and the cardboard cutout of Brett Gardner which Aaron Boone secretly folds up every road trip and packs in his suitcase. A crosstown series? Great time. A cross-country series? Titanic.
So, give us Ohtani coming to bat in a crucial spot in Game 7. But wait to decide what he does until we see what’s happening in the American League.
