The two biggest markets in the MLB are going to be center stage in the National League Championship Series. With Los Angeles having the 5th highest payroll going up against the highest payroll in the MLB, you know there will be a lot of star power.
These two teams had vastly different seasons. The New York Mets were not predicted by nearly anyone to actually make the playoffs, let alone be one of the last two teams remaining in the National League. It seems like ages ago, but this is the same Mets team that made the playoffs not on the last day of the regular season, but the day after the season was supposed to end. It is safe to say that the Mets have been exceeding expectations this postseason.
The Dodgers on the other hand were projected by everyone to make the playoffs, and majority of people had them first in their division and the National League. The Dodgers have been meeting expectations, with their star power really flexing their muscle this postseason against the Padres. Now they needed those stars to perform to get past San Diego as the Padres are a very good team with their own stars. We could easily be talking about a Padres-Mets NLCS instead. With that being said though, how do these two very expensive teams match up?
The Mets and Dodgers faced each other six times during the regular season. The Dodgers won four of the meetings. The series was high scoring to say the least, with LA scoring ten runs in two of the games. While the Dodgers may have the flashiest star in Shohei Ohtani, the Mets have stars too. The team is lead by players like Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo to name a few. New York will have to contain Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernandez, and Freddie Freeman. The stars will be out in this series.
Batting Lineup
The batting lineup of these teams are loaded with guys that can send a ball out of the ball park. The Mets have accumulated eight homeruns to the Dodgers nine this post season. New York leads the post season with 38 runs scored in the seven games they played. While the Dodgers have played two fewer games and have 24 runs through five games. That is a 14 run difference which would imply that the Mets may have the more consistent batting lineup in this post season.
Other stats like on base percentage and batting average would also suggest the Mets may be more potent offensively. New York also does have the second most strikeouts this postseason with 68, suggesting they like to swing that bat and it is not always a good thing.
The Dodgers did face a team in the Padres that has some of the best pitchers in the league, but that should not excuse the lack of production in the post season. Good teams can make even the best pitchers look silly with their hitting, but the Dodgers seem to be struggling to find consistency. LA needs the batting power to ramp up and while the Mets pitchers are quite good, you could argue they are not as good as the Padres pitching staff.
The ability to get on base for the Dodgers may be the deciding factor for this series, as they were quite average in the on base percentage. While it was still good, sometimes good is not good enough when it comes to October baseball. They will need to figure out the Mets pitching staff, and come prepared to battle and improve off of the last series offensively.
Pitching
The Mets are going to need the pitching staff to step up a little bit to make it through the Dodgers. While Philadelphia has some big bats, they have not yet faced a team with the star power that the Dodgers bring to the plate. The Mets have had the luxury of having some decent pitching so far this postseason. While they may have given up the second most runs so far with 23, they have played seven games, which is an average of 3.29 runs per game. Not too bad when considering they have the star power in the batting lineup to out score that number with ease.
The biggest worry New York should have is that if the Dodgers are to drive a pitchers pitch count up with every at bat. It may wear the pitchers down a bit, and with it being a seven game series now, you have to wonder if fatigue becomes a factor, considering how little time the Mets have had to catch their breath since the end of the season. It will take some good management by Carlos Mendoza to make sure that does not happen.
Los Angeles is missing some of their best pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone. You should see the rotating cast of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler in this series. Yamamoto was seen in Game 5 and went head to head with one of the best pitchers in the game in Yu Darvish and came out victorious.
While the pitching staff of the Dodgers may not be deep, they are very serviceable. Lucky for them they are lining up against a pitching staff on the other side that you could say is equal. If the Dodgers pitching gives you the same as what they got in the last series, the Dodgers will be looking at another long series. LA will be wanting the pitching to clean it up a little more as they will need to for them to advance, and for sure for the series against either team over in the American League. For now, the pitching will need to step up and shut down the big bats of the Mets.
This series is going to be an interesting one. Travel alone is going to drain both teams, as they will be travelling a minimum of 5600 miles. If the series goes six or seven games, you can tack on another 2800 miles. The Mets will really be feeling that travel with how little time they have had to breath this post season.
Both lineups have the star power in the batting lineup. Both lineups have a pitching staff that leaves some more to desire. The pitchers are capable of shutting down a game, it just is if they will or if the bats even give them a chance to. This will be a series that will peek everyone’s interest with the Mets facing one of the most hyped teams in baseball. The Mets are hot right now, and the Dodgers just went through a grinding series, but it should not slow them down one bit.
My Prediction: Dodgers in 6
