Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers president of baseball operations, often refers to the playoffs as “the theater of October.”
But when his team executes its preferred postseason game script, it can suck all the theatrics right out of the equation.
In a pivotal Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night, that’s exactly what happened in the Dodgers’ 8-0 win over the New York Mets.
They caught an early lead from their lineup. They got a solid, albeit short outing from their starter. And then they called upon a parade of dominant relievers from the bullpen, racking up nine more zeroes as much of the Citi Field crowd headed for the exits early.
It might not be an orthodox October plan, but it’s the one best suited to the Dodgers’ reliever-reliant pitching staff and shorthanded starting rotation. And now, after executing it to ruthless perfection, the Dodgers are back in control with a two-games-to-one lead, holding an opportunity to end the seven-game series before it heads back to L.A.
“I feel good where we’re at right now,” said manager Dave Roberts, who confirmed the Dodgers will start their best two pitchers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty, in the next two days.
“We’re happy obviously,” outfielder Mookie Betts added. “But it’s not done.”
That might be true. But if the Dodgers keep replicating Wednesday’s blueprint, then a trip back to the World Series might not be far away.
In their fourth shutout victory over the last five games, there were no late dramatics. No back-and-forth lead changes. Just some consistent Dodgers offense, coupled with more dominance from a lights-out pitching staff.
Kiké Hernández celebrates after hitting a two-run home run for the Dodgers in the sixth inning against the Mets in Game 3 of the NLCS at Citi Field on Wednesday night.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers capitalized on several Mets miscues in the second inning, manufacturing two important runs to open the scoring. They watched Walker Buehler tiptoe in and out of danger over four scoreless innings, the right-hander managing to get enough swings and misses to compensate for his spotty command.
Then, aided by late home runs from Kiké Hernandez, Shohei Ohtani, and Max Muncy, the trustworthy relief corps took over, getting five scoreless innings to continue its suffocating postseason form and reaffirm the Dodgers’ control of this series.
“We just look forward to pitching,” reliever Blake Treinen, who pitched a scoreless seventh inning, said of the bullpen. “So when we have a lead, we all get to pitch a little bit more.”
That didn’t happen in Game 2, when the Dodgers’ bullpen game imploded before they ever got to their most-trusted arms. Wednesday, however, was a different story from the start.
After Muncy led off the second inning with a walk, Teoscar Hernández hit a swinging bunt in front of the plate that Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez unwisely threw to second, a low throw that got away from teammate Jose Iglesias to allow both runners to reach safely.
Starting pitcher (and Gold Glove finalist) Luis Severino made a couple of defensive missteps himself, misplaying a pair of comebackers near the mound that allowed one run to score and set up Tommy Edman for a sacrifice fly later in the inning.
Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor avoids a major collision with right fielder Starling Marte and makes a sliding catch on a sacrifice fly by Tommy Edman in the second inning Wednesday.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
And from there, the Dodgers never looked back.
Buehler’s start was a grind — but punctuated by a few gratifying moments.
Only 51 of his 90 pitches found the zone. He threw first-pitch strikes less than half of the time. And he issued two walks while also hitting a batter, creating traffic on the bases that kept him under constant stress.
Such situations, however, are where Buehler has thrived in his postseason career (last week’s six-run clunker against the San Diego Padres aside).
And on Wednesday, he spun his way out of each threat, fooling Mets hitters with a curveball that got whiffs on six of seven swings, including an inning-ending strikeout of Francisco Lindor in the second with the bases loaded; a sweeper that got whiffs on six of nine swings, including an inning-ending strikeout of J.D. Martinez with two aboard in the third; and six total strikeouts, several of them followed by fiery growls as Buehler strutted off the mound.
“Being in big games, that’s literally all I care about,” said Buehler, whose 18 playoff starts rank second in Dodgers history. “I want 25 guys in the locker room that believe I give us a really good chance to win. If I’ve created that in our locker room somehow, that’s probably what I’ll be the most proud of when I’m done.”
Meanwhile, the Dodgers kept adding on.
In the sixth, Kiké Hernández battled in a two-strike count before lifting a two-run home run to left, mashing his second long ball of the postseason to go with a team-best .333 batting average in these playoffs.
“Biggest hit of the game,” Roberts said, emphasizing the difference between a 2-0 and 4-0 lead.
In the eighth, Ohtani snapped a two-for-15 skid with a towering, three-run blast inside the right field foul pole, sending swaths of the 43,883-person crowd to the exits with his second home run of the playoffs.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani follows through on a three-run home run during the eighth inning of Game 3 of the NLCS against the Mets at Citi Field on Wednesday.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
In the ninth, Muncy also went deep, completing a night in which he reached base in all five trips to the plate (he also had three walks and a single) by tying the Dodgers record with his 13th career postseason blast.
All that production, however, proved to be superfluous. Once the Dodgers turned the game over to the bullpen, the Mets never showed another flicker of life.
Michael Kopech, the closest thing the Dodgers had to a designated closer at the end of the regular season, was first out of the bullpen in the fifth inning, retiring the side in order despite a couple of warning-track scares.
Game 2 opener Ryan Brasier briefly faced trouble in the sixth but skirted a two-on, one-out jam with an inning-ending double play. Treinen, the team’s most trusted relief arm of late, worked a clean seventh, seemingly leaving the eighth and ninth for Daniel Hudson and Evan Phillips.
But after the second-deck drives from Ohtani and Muncy, all the Dodgers needed were two mop-up innings from Ben Casparius instead.
“Those things matter,” Roberts said.
Especially for a team that, now just two wins away from its first World Series since 2020, will try to replicate Wednesday’s script as much as it can the rest of this month, happy to play without the theatrics that typically accompany a deep October run.
“Being able to go home with a few days off looking at a World Series would be the ultimate goal,” Treinen said. “So yeah, win tomorrow, focus on that, take care of business and see what happens next.”