NEW YORK — A tarp has lined the top of the walls inside the visiting clubhouse at Citi Field for days. The white plastic is curled and tied up behind the television monitors waiting to serve as a shield against potential damage caused by beer and bubbly. It’s been in place since before the Los Angeles Dodgers arrived this week and has seemingly beckoned them since.
Now, the party could begin as early as Friday night.
The Dodgers drubbed the New York Mets 10-2 in Game 4 to take a 3-1 lead in this National League Championship Series. One win separates them from returning to the World Series, even though they are playing shorthanded.
Ahead of Thursday’s thrashing, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called Freddie Freeman. His first baseman has played through excruciating pain for weeks now, and the brisk New York climate has done little to help. Roberts urged his star to sit and wait for a big spot. So Freeman retreated to the cage and swung. He swung for the majority of the night’s first two innings but stopped as the Dodgers broke away once again.
Freeman’s bat wouldn’t be necessary. The Dodgers pushed Jose Quintana to his limit anyway. Before he strode to the plate for the first at-bat of the night, Shohei Ohtani received direction from Freeman.
“Freddie talked to me to make sure that I joined the party earlier than later,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton.
Ohtani did just that, sending the second sinker he saw into the Mets’ bullpen. He pointed in Freeman’s direction in the dugout after flipping his bat. The presumptive National League MVP hit better-located pitches out of the ballpark this season, and this center-cut offering left his bat at an eye-popping 117.8 mph.
Later, Ohtani again sparked a rally off Quintana, drawing a walk and coming around to score on Tommy Edman’s double as part of a two-run third. When Chris Taylor stroked an infield single in the fourth and Ohtani drew another walk to end Quintana’s night, Mookie Betts assumed the former MVP mantle and starring role. His double into the corner scored a pair; Quintana recorded just 10 outs and allowed five runs.
The Dodgers’ plan of attack was simple to employ but difficult to execute. Quintana excelled during the National League Division Series by getting the Philadelphia Phillies to chase outside the strike zone.
“We had a plan tonight: Don’t give in to the nibble with Quintana,” Freeman said. “Make him keep the ball over the plate.”
“He’s a guy who has a lot of success by getting you to swing at his pitches,” Edman said. “That kind of plays into our strength.”
Patience would not have to equate to tentativeness. The Dodgers drew four walks against Quintana, and nine on the night overall.
“Tonight was a battle of who was going to give in first,” Max Muncy explained. “He wanted to get us to chase. We wanted to get him to throw strikes. And it was just who was going to be more stubborn. And I feel like we were able to outlast him.
“It’s being aggressive on balls in the zone. Not taking balls in the zone. And not swinging out of the zone. And I think that’s just a deeper understanding for us, understanding who we are as a team, and what certain pitches we can hit, what pitches we can’t hit. And we’ve had an entire lineup being able to buy into that.”
Patience has been a theme for the Dodgers in this NLCS. They’ve drawn 31 walks the most ever by a team over a four-game span in a postseason, stressing a Mets pitching staff that hasn’t appeared up to the task.
And yet they still dealt out punishment. Betts took the underbelly of New York’s pitching staff to task, greeting Phil Maton with a hearty cut at a sweeper that swept right over the middle of the plate. Betts stood and admired his work as a two-run shot flew into the seats, skipping his way down the first-base line before taking his jaunt around the basepaths.
“I think I’ve tried to manage those emotions many times,” said Betts, whose early postseason woes have given way to triumphs. His OPS this October is .964. “I think you just ride them. You just ride those emotions. … I’ve tried to stay even-keeled and all those things. At a time like this, that doesn’t really work, so you’ve just got to jump on the roller coaster and enjoy the ride.”
Freeman didn’t have to take an at-bat. The other two MVPs in the lineup, Ohtani and Betts, combined to go 5-for-9, reaching base eight times while driving in five runs, including a home run each. The contributions extended throughout the lineup. Muncy continued his postseason-record stretch, reaching his first four times to set an all-time mark with 12 consecutive plate appearances reaching safely dating back to Monday’s Game 2. Every Dodger in the lineup reached base at least once.
“There are no heroes in this clubhouse,” Teoscar Hernández said. “If they’re not pitching to you, just get on base for the next guy.”
The barrage of runs provided some cushion for the Dodgers’ continued standout pitching. Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out eight, tapping into his slider more than he had in any start this season. Elsewhere, Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen took the sting out of the only threats the Mets managed to muster against them in the middle innings.
The Dodgers have outscored the Mets, 30-9 through four games. A week after exhausting every last resort to come back and beat the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers have hardly been tested. One more win and they’ll have their first National League pennant since 2020 and fourth in the last eight years.
The Dodgers’ annual trips to October have made the gap between pennants, much less series wins in recent years, feel like a gulf. Roberts has repeatedly said there’s something different this time.
“I sort of like the us-against-the-world attitude that our guys have sort of taken on,” Roberts said. “I think that’s kind of ironic with the Dodgers, but I like that.”
“We usually are the world,” Roberts conceded a minute later. Thursday night, they played world-beaters again.
Do it one more time, and they’re back in the World Series.
“We’re close,” Edman said. “We can feel it, for sure.”
Close to letting that tarp drop down.
(Photo of Dodgers celebrating: Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
