Another dominating win from the Dodgers

The Dodgers lead the series

The Dodgers have won four of their last five playoff games. All four of their wins have been shutouts.

With the exception of the second inning of Game 2, the Dodgers have really dominated this series against the Mets. I know you can’t just take out an inning from a game, but if you take out that second inning, the Dodgers have outscored the Mets 20-2 in the other 26 innings.

Again, you can’t do that, but the Dodgers are one bad inning away from leading this series 3-0.

Oh well.

The Dodgers currently lead the series 2-1. They reclaimed homefield advantage with their victory last night, though I’m sure they want to just finish the job in New York.

Walker F’ing Buehler!

There’s just something about October that brings out the best in certain players. Walker Buehler is one of those guys, who just always seems to show up in the biggest games.

He had a rough outing against San Diego, but that was all because of his defense. He was charged with six runs, but probably should have made it through that inning clean. After the disaster inning, he turned in three scoreless innings before being removed.

That carried over to last night, as Buehler delivered his best start of the season, and one of his best starts in years.

He was only able to go four innings, largely due to his pitch count being so high at 90. They were some stressful innings, as the Mets managed to get multiple guys on base. Despite that, Buehler managed to work around all the traffic and give the Dodgers four scoreless innings.

His 18 whiffs were the most he’s had in a game in 2024. They were his most in a game since October 3, 2021. Over three years since we saw Buehler’s stuff look as good as it did last night. Remember, he only went four innings. Had Buehler gone another inning, that number likely would have been even higher.

Buehler also had a called strike/whiff percentage of 38.9 percent, the 12th highest of his entire career. It was his highest in a game since Game 1 of the 2020 NLDS.

To put it simply, last night was the Buehler of old.

With the Dodgers missing so many starting pitchers, they’ve had to turn to Buehler. If everyone would have been healthy, Buehler likely isn’t even on the postseason roster. Instead, he’s been LA’s No. 3 starter. So far, he’s given the Dodgers everything they could have asked from him, probably more.

When the offense shows up, good things happen

What have I said numerous times this postseason? If they offense shows up, the Dodgers will win the game.

I know Landon Knack is largely to blame for the Game 2 loss, but if the Dodgers offense came through they could have won that game. They had a handful of chances to chip away and either tie or take the lead. The game was there for the taking if they recorded another hit or two with runners in scoring position.

Well, the offense definitely made the trip to New York. The offense erupted for eight runs on 10 hits and seven walks. Everyone in the lineup was contributing.

Kiké Hernandez continues to be Mr. October. He hit a two-run homer, his third of the postseason and the 15th of his career. At the time of the homer, the Dodgers had only a two-run lead. It was still a close game. That homer gave them some needed comfort.

Shohei Ohtani, who is still hitless with the bases empty somehow, hit a game-changing three-run homer in the eighth inning. As long as he has runners on base, he’s still the greatest hitter in the game.

An inning later, Max Muncy hit his 13th career postseason homer, tying the Dodgers franchise record with Corey Seager and Justin Turner. Speaking of Muncy, he has become LA’s best hitter this postseason. He’s now reached in eight consecutive plate appearances and leads the team with a 1.078 OPS.

In addition to those big homers, a number of other players had big nights as well. Tommy Edman had an RBI on a sac fly. He also singled with two outs, extending the inning for the Kiké homer. Edman has been fantastic for LA this postseason, as his .321 average is second on the team, behind Kiké.

Will Smith had a two-hit night and drew a walk. Hopefully that gets him going, as he’s been terrible this postseason. He was dropped to seventh in the lineup, so maybe keeping him there will be good for him.

Bullpen was saved

Going back to earlier, I said Ohtani had a game-changing homer. It gave the Dodgers a comfortable seven-run lead in the eighth inning, which might have honestly changed the series.

With the big lead, the Dodgers turned to Ben Casparius to close things out. It looked like Evan Phillips and Daniel Hudson would finish the game, but no need to burn those arms. Not only were those two arms saved last night, it allows you to use both relievers in Game 4 while potentially saving some other arms for Game 5.

The only high-leverage arms used last night were Michael Kopech, Ryan Brasier and Blake Treinen. Despite pitching last night, they’re probably available tonight as well.

The bullpen is as fresh as they can possibly be. Hopefully Yamamoto can give them some length tonight, saving as many arms as possible for a potential series clincher on Friday.