(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Mets nip Dodgers in Game 5 to reach NLCS!
Nederlands
 LOS ANGELES, California (USA) -
The New York Mets trailed after the first inning on Thursday-evening (October 15), but won 3-2 vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 to win their National League Division Series, 3-2.
In the first inning, the Mets took the lead on a double by Daniel Murphy, who then scored the tying run in the fourth after very smart baserunning and gave his team the lead with a 6th inning homerun.
With the win, the Mets return to the NLCS for the first time since 2006.
In that year, the Mets were eliminated in the NLCS by the St. Louis Cardinals.
The last time the Mets won a NLCS was in 1986 when the team also went on to win its last World Series.
The Mets now will face the Chicago Cubs in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series, which opens on Saturday in New York.
On Friday, the best-of-seven American League Championship Series between the Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays open in Kansas City.
Starting pitchers tonight were righthander Zack Greinke (19-3) for the Dodgers and righthander Jacob deGrom (14-8) for the Mets.
Zack Greinke was the starting and winning pitcher for the Dodgers in the second game.
He then struckout eight batters in seven innings.
Before tonight, Greinke was unbeaten against the Mets in his last six starts.
He lost only once against the Mets, which came in 2004.
Jacob deGrom was the starting and winning pitcher for the Mets in the first game of this series, throwing seven innings in which he struckout 13 batters.
With his 13 strikeouts, he tied the postseason club-record, which was set in 1973 by Tom Seaver.
Tonight was the third career match-up between Greinke and deGrom.
In the first game, in August last year at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers won.
The second game, in July this year in New York, the Mets won in 10 innings.
In this series so far, all pitchers of both teams combined on 89 strikeouts.
Before tonight, the Dodgers were 4-0 in winner-take-all postseason games since the team moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958.
The last of those wins came in 1988 when the Dodgers won Game 7 of the NLCS, also against the Mets, to reach the World Series.
Winning pitcher in that game was Orel Hershiser, who went the distance in a 6-0 shutout.
Tonight, Hershiser threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game.
Also in 1988, on this date (October 15), Kirk Gibson hit his famous 2-out, pinch-hit, walk-off, 2-run homerun that gave the Dodgers a 5-4 win against the Oakland Athletics in Game One of the World Series.
That Series not only was the last won by Los Angeles, it also was the last World Series in which the Dodgers played.
Tonight's game started with a challenge.
Curtis Granderson led off for the Mets with a soft grounder towards third base, but initially was called out at first base.
After the review, the call was overturned and so, Granderson reached on an infield-hit.
With one out, Granderson scored on a double by Daniel Murphy.
But hereafter, Zack Greinke struckout the next two batters.
The Dodgers reacted immediately off of Jacob deGrom.
With one out, Corey Seager and Adrian Gonzalez both singled, then scored when Justin Turner and Andre Ethier also singled to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
The inning ended when deGrom also closed with two strikeouts.
...Curtis Granderson and the Mets...
...move into the Championship Series...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the top of the second inning, rightfielder Andre Ethier made a great diving catch on a drive down the line by Michael Conforto.
In the second game, Conforto had homered off of Greinke and with that became the second youngest Mets-player to hit a homerun in the postseason with his 22 years and 223 days.
The only Mets-player younger than Conforto to homer in the postseason was Wayne Garrett, who was 21 years and 307 days when he homered in the 1969 NLCS.
Before and after the catch, Greinke struckout two more batters.
The Dodgers got another scoring opportunity in the bottom of the second inning.
Joc Pederson led off with a walk, then advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Zack Greinke.
Next batter Howie Kendrick then reached on a throwing error.
But deGrom avoided giving up runs by again striking out the next two hitters.
In the bottom of the 3rd inning, the Dodgers again left a runner in scoring position.
Justin Turner led off with a double and stole third base.
With one out, Yasmani Grandal walked, but this time, deGrom was supported with a double play.
Smart baserunning enabled the Mets to come alongside in the top of fourth inning.
First, Daniel Murphy led off with a single.
With one out, Lucas Duda walked.
Murphy of course advanced to second base, but then picked up speed while approaching second base and surprised everyone by stealing third base, as that was unprotected due to the 'shift' the Dodger-infield was playing.
Moment later, Murphy scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly in foul territory by Travis d'Arnaud.
In the bottom of the fourth, deGrom ran into problems again, but the Dodgers stranded another runner in scoring position.
Joc Pederson led off with a walk, advanced on a sacrifice bunt and a flyout.
But he was left on third base when a strikeout followed.
After the Dodgers stranded another runner in scoring position in the bottom of the fifth, the Mets broke the tie in the top of the sixth.
With one out, Daniel Murphy drove the ball into the rightfield stands for a homerun to make it 3-2.
With two outs in the top the seventh, the Mets got two runners on when Wilmer Flores and pinch-hitter Kelly Johnson singled.
That led to a pitching change, as Luis Avilan took over for Greinke.
A flyout ended the inning.
The Mets also changed pitchers moments later, as Noah Syndergaard replaced Jacob deGrom in the bottom of the seventh.
He walked a batter with two outs, but ended with a strikeout.
Closer Jeurys Familia took over for the Mets in the eighth and retired the side.
Despite trailing, Dodger-closer Kenley Jansen was brought in to pitch the top of the ninth inning in order to prevent the Mets from scoring more runs, then hoping to turn the game around in the home half.
Jansen got two outs, then gave up a double to Juan Lagares.
An intentional walk then followed for Wilmer Flores, this time not to set up a force play, but simply to pitch to reliever Jeurys Familia, who stayed in the game and wasn't pinch-hit for, as he of course was needed to pitch the bottom of the ninth inning.
The decision was successful, as Jansen struckout Familia and held the Mets scoreless.
In the bottom of the ninth, Chase Utley opened as pinch-hitter.
He had been eligible to play in the previous two games (but didn't), as his appeal following his 2-game suspension wasn't heard yet.
That will be heard next Monday.
Utley flied out.
Next, Familia struckout A.J. Ellis and Howie Kendrick to end the game!
In this series, Familia had retired all 16 batters he faced!
With that, the Mets won the series.
After the game, the team flew back from Los Angeles on a 'red eye flight' to New York, will have a workout on Friday, then open the NLCS on Saturday at home against the Chicago Cubs.
(October 15)
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