LOS ANGELES — In this improbably wonderful Mets run through late September and early October that can’t ever be repeated or even matched, they already beat the hated Braves, shocked the troublesome Brewers and dispatched the extremely disliked Phillies.
The Mets turned an impossible gauntlet with a worse travel schedule into an utter joyride with necessary superb play.
And things just got tougher. At least it would seem that way.
The celebrity-and-star-filled Dodgers — the Mets’ National League Championship Series opponent after their 2-0 victory Friday night over the detested Padres — are the most celebrated roster maybe ever. Full-fledged superstars comprise the first third of their excellent lineup, starting with the star among stars, Shohei Ohtani, the 50-50 man who will beat the all-around amazing Francisco Lindor for NL MVP. Ohtani has the talent of Babe Ruth, and at full strength these Dodgers have enough ability to fill out two competitive or better rosters.
If the Dodgers aren’t America’s team, they belong to the world.
They are not only the other National League team with a payroll past $300 million, unlike the slightly-pricier Mets ($341 million), who moved on from the brief Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander era just in time, the Dodgers actually still own all their high-priced celebs and Hall-of-Famers to be, even if they aren’t all healthy and active at the moment.
Don’t think this doesn’t matter. The three teams to reach baseball’s final four are the three $300 million teams, which is a pretty good indicator that money matters. The fourth will be the Guardians or Tigers, with both payrolls being less than nothing (at least by NYC standards).
L.A. is a franchise to be reckoned with, as well run as any, with accomplished pros all over the diamond and in the dugout, too, and they rode two long solo shots off ex-Dodger Darvish, by Kiké Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez, to win the first postseason matchup of Japan-born pitchers (the $325 million man Yoshinobu Yamamoto got the call for L.A. and the win).
But here’s why the Mets not only have a real shot but I say will probably win.
The Mets are actually the better-rested team for once. Their five-stop, 16-day trip (including a hurricane) is only a happy memory now. By eliminating the Phillies in four tidy games, the Mets actually gained two more rest days than the Dodgers.
That’s great for them, and especially problematic for the Dodgers, whose rotation is so thin they had to go completely with their bullpen by Game 4, which also happened to be an elimination game. Their pen is excellent, but that isn’t optimal.
The Dodgers are still winning. But they aren’t really themselves, or at least not their healthy selves.
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They have almost a record number of MLB pitchers on the injured list, in sick bay or otherwise unavailable. Give them credit for getting past the Padres, who held an arguable rotation edge in games one through five.
Give Dodgers manager Dave Roberts credit, too. For all the chatter about him having to win more big ones, the Dodgers improved to 6-2 in winner-take-all games under Roberts, and that’s counting Game 7 of the World Series, when the Houston Asterisks only technically won the title.
The Dodgers are hot, too, having gone a second-best-in-baseball 42-23 since the break (only the Padres, 43-20, were better).
But the Dodgers seem only lukewarm lately compared to these Mets with their magic and mojo and momentum. Don’t knock it, they believe in that stuff out here.
Of even greater concern, that potentially devastating Dodgers rotation is, in a word, a mess.
Yamamoto certainly showed up in the deciding Game 5, but the Mets can’t really be regretting saving their $325 million bucks there at this point. At least not yet. (The Mets tried harder than almost anyone, meeting him in Japan and inviting him to Steve Cohen’s Connecticut compound, but from here that looks like money better saved.)
Jack Flaherty is a feisty guy who regained previous form, and would have been a Yankee if his medicals didn’t reveal an iffy lower back. (As it turned out, the Yankees probably don’t need him.)
Walker Buehler, a former star and October stalwart, looks like a back-end starter now. And that’s it.
That’s your Dodgers rotation.
Meantime, the Mets, well, you know, everything looks right now. The regular year was tough, but everything’s completely turned around.
This is a hot and confident team. They don’t cop to magic or mojo, but no one can say they don’t have momentum on their side now.
It’s been one wild and happy ride for the Mets, and the Dodgers, no matter how beat up, are far from a pushover. They have that star-laden lineup mainly intact (Freddie Freeman is playing with a bum ankle) and a stacked bullpen, which they need now. And their bullpen is better than the Brewers’ or Phillies’ pens, which were decimated by these amazing Mets, who need two more rounds to complete one of the most incredible turnaround stories ever. Don’t bet against them.
