NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani hit a leadoff homer and scored four times, Mookie Betts also went deep and drove in four runs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Mets 10-2 on Thursday night for a 3-1 lead in their lopsided National League Championship series.
Betts had a two-run homer and a two-run double among his four hits. Max Muncy extended his streak of reaching base safely to 12 at-bats, a postseason record, and the Dodgers moved within one win of their 25th pennant – the most in NL history.
Game 5 is Friday at Citi Field, with Jack Flaherty expected to pitch for Los Angeles, seeking a berth in the World Series for his hometown team.
David Peterson would make his first playoff start for New York after pitching well out of the bullpen this postseason.
“Peterson is fully rested. The last time he pitched was four days ago, so I expect him to make a regular start,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
Surprise cleanup hitter Tommy Edman had three RBIs, including a tiebreaking double off starter Jose Quintana with two outs in the third inning. Kiké Hernández followed with an RBI single that made it 3-1.
Betts broke the game open, greeting reliever Jose Buttó with a two-run double in the fourth and then right-hander Phil Maton with a two-run homer in the sixth.
Both big hits followed walks to Ohtani, and he issued three consecutive free passes after homering on consecutive swings dating back to Game 3.
“Not just Ohtani, you have to take care of the other guys behind him,” Mendoza said. “For him to go out the first at-bat of the game and hit it like that, obviously it’s a good feeling for them. We knew it wasn’t going to beat us, but we couldn’t just stop it.”
Betts gave a huge fist pump between second and third as he rounded the bases after his third homer of these playoffs.
Mark Vientos provided a rare highlight for New York, hitting his fourth postseason homer in the first inning off $325 million rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
But the Mets, who were 14-2 in their last 16 games at Citi Field when they returned home Wednesday, were blown out at home for the second straight night.
New York was outscored 30-9 in the series, including 9-0 in the opener and 8-0 in Game 3.
“You’ve got to give those guys credit. That’s a deep lineup,” Mendoza said. “And whether (our starters) feel it or not, we didn’t execute and we didn’t get any length from them.”
The latest flop, after a thrilling comeback well into October, silenced a sold-out crowd of 43,882 and left Citi Field eerily quiet in the late innings – and about as empty as it was in April.
Evan Phillips earned the victory with 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Yamamoto.
Trailing 7-2, the reeling Mets had a chance to get back into the game when they loaded the bases with no one out in the sixth. But then Phillips retired the side and Blake Treinen retired pinch-hitter Jesse Winker on a fly to the warning track in right field.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Evaders: All-Star 1B Freddie Freeman missed his second game of the playoffs. Freeman played the entire postseason with a severely sprained and swollen right ankle.
Of: Slumping catcher Francisco Alvarez limped to first base in pain after being drilled by Yamamoto’s 90-mph sinker to start the fifth. He was pulled to pinch hitter with the bases loaded in the sixth.
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Acquired from Detroit at the July 30 trade deadline, Flaherty went 6-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 10 regular-season starts for the Dodgers and finished 13-7 with a 3.17 ERA overall. He allowed two hits in seven innings and won the NLCS opener 9-0.
