The Dodgers had been here before.
Coming off an emotional five-game division series against a National League West opponent. Entering an NL Championship Series against a team with whom they were much less familiar. Four wins from reaching the World Series, and are considered safe favorites to get there. But needing to regroup, and make a 48-hour shift from one series to the next.
In 2021, the Dodgers couldn’t do it. After defeating the San Francisco Giants in Game 5 of the NLDS, they lost Game 1 of the NLCS to the Atlanta Braves two days later. They never recovered. Their October ended early.
This year, the club faced an eerily similar set of circumstances, just with less travel.
On Friday, they experienced the high point of their season, knocking out the San Diego Padres in a winner-take-all game at Dodger Stadium.
Then on Sunday, they were right back at it against the New York Mets.
This time, the two-day turnaround went smoother than before. After a couple late nights from the coaching staff, and a single off day for a shorthanded roster, the Dodgers took Game 1 of the NLCS with a 9-0 thumping.
The offense jumped on Mets starter Kodai Senga early, tagging him with three runs in less than two innings before adding three more in the fourth.
Jack Flaherty pitched seven dominant innings, producing the club’s longest scoreless playoff start since Clayton Kershaw in the 2020 wild card to extend this week’s scoreless inning streak from the pitching staff to a whopping 33 innings — tying a Major League Baseball postseason record.
If that wasn’t enough, the Dodgers’ defense was brilliant, too, making leaping catches at the wall, extending for snags over the foul-ground barrier and even throwing out a baserunner on a clueless fifth-inning mistake from Mets designated hitter Jesse Winker.
When the game was finally over, much of the 53,503-person crowd had already filed out.
By then, a resounding Game 1 statement had been long ago delivered.
Sunday wasn’t supposed to be this easy for the Dodgers, not after the hectic 48 hours that preceded it.
After all, advance work for this series was nothing like prepping for the Padres, a team the Dodgers had seen 13 times already this year, including the penultimate series of the regular season.
The last time the Dodgers played the Mets in late May, New York was 11 games under .500, seemingly headed toward a fire sale at the trade deadline, and spiraling so bad that when one of its relievers appeared to say he played for the “worst team” (the reliever, Jorge López, later claimed he was misquoted) it was nonetheless believable.
Since then, however, the Mets have played like a “completely different team,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Their 66 wins after May 29 — the final loss of a three-game sweep against the Dodgers — were the most in MLB. Their first two rounds of the postseason were defined by dramatic moments, including Pete Alonso’s go-ahead ninth-inning home run in the wild card series and Francisco Lindor’s NLDS-sealing grand slam a week later.
While the Dodgers went down to the wire with the Padres, the Mets enjoyed a few extra days of rest, as well, allowing them to line up their ace pitcher Senga to pitch in Sunday’s opener.
Yet, the Dodgers were ready.
Even with only one day to prepare, their coaching staff and scouting department worked through much of Friday night, all of Saturday’s off-day and into the wee hours of Sunday morning to get both the lineup and pitching staff up to speed.
“You’re basically studying for a test,” said hitting coach Aaron Bates, who like most Dodgers staffers spent more time in meetings between the two series than he did sleeping.
“You sleep later,” Bates joked. “Just drink a lot of coffee, Ashoc [energy drinks], whatever you have to do to stay awake. And then, go off adrenaline.”
The Dodgers also had a plan against the Mets’ Japanese right-hander, who they knew would still be on a limited pitch count after making just one start in the regular season because of shoulder and calf injuries.
“A saying we’ve always kind of had when you’re approaching a guy that may not give a ton of innings, or maybe it’s an opener or any number of things is, he’s going to go as long as we let him go,” third baseman Max Muncy said.
With Senga lacking any semblance of command, the Dodgers didn’t let him go long.
In the first inning, Mookie Betts walked on four pitches, Freddie Freeman took a free base from a full count and Teoscar Hernández sat on four more balls out of the zone to load the bases.
An ensuing mound visit from Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner didn’t help.
While Will Smith hit a shallow fly ball for the second out, Muncy worked a 2-and-1 count, then dumped a down-the-middle cutter into center field for a single. Betts scored easily. Then he turned and watched Freeman — with heavy spatting tape wrapped around his sprained right ankle — hobble across home plate. With Freeman unable to slow down quickly enough, Betts caught him in his arms and wrapped him in a hug, a smile planted on both of their faces.
After another walk in the second inning was followed by a sacrifice bunt and RBI single from Shohei Ohtani — who is six for eight this postseason with runners on base but hitless in 16 at-bats otherwise — Senga was finally chased from the game.
The Dodgers kept building the lead in the fourth inning, executing another successful sac bunt (it was their first game with two of them since September 2021) that led to an RBI single from Edman, then tacking on two more via Ohtani’s single off the wall and Freeman’s single the other way.
The 6-0 lead was more than enough for Flaherty, who retired his first nine batters, held the Mets hitless through the first four innings and finished his 98-pitch gem with six strikeouts.
Flaherty briefly wobbled in the fifth, giving up back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. On the second one, however, Winker got thrown out on the bases as the lead runner, making a puzzling decision after being deked by Kiké Hernández in center field.
As Hernández fielded the bouncing ball, he lined his body up to throw to third, but tricked Winker — who was between second and third — with a throw from second instead. His head whipping back and forth in confusion over where the ball had gone, Winker slowed to a trot, allowing Gavin Lux to fire on to third where Muncy tagged him out.
It was that kind of game for the Dodgers, who piled on in the eighth on a three-run double from Betts.
Another quick turnaround awaits them, with a matinee Game 2 scheduled for 1:08 p.m. Monday afternoon.
But in October, as the Dodgers coaching staff happily noted pregame, sleep can wait.
