NEW YORK — Nothing comes easy for the New York Mets — not even a season-saving, wire-to-wire, record-setting win.
Pete Alonso hit a three-run homer in the first inning before the Mets fended off several rallies by the Los Angeles Dodgers and staved off elimination with a 12-6 win in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series on Friday.
The Dodgers lead the best-of-seven series three games to two. Game 6 is scheduled for Sunday night in Los Angeles, where the hosts are expected to utilize a bullpen game.
“Battled our (rear ends) off here,” said Dodgers pitcher Brent Honeywell Jr., who gave up four runs over 4 2/3 innings in relief of ineffective starter Jack Flaherty. “We knew they were going to fight tonight. That’s playoff baseball. That’s what you get into.”
The Mets — who were 11 games under .500 in early June, didn’t clinch a playoff berth until game No. 161 and were two outs from elimination before coming back to win Game 3 of an NL wild-card series against the Milwaukee Brewers — are trying to become the first team since the 2020 Dodgers to overcome a three-games-to-one deficit in a best-of-seven series.
New York will likely have starters Sean Manaea and Luis Severino ready to go on regular rest for Game 6 and Game 7, if necessary.
“When presented an opportunity, how do you respond and how do you capitalize?” Alonso said. “And how we’ve responded and answered the bell every single step of the way this year, it’s been tremendous.”
Mets starter David Peterson wriggled out of a second-and-third, none-out jam in the top of the first before Alonso’s homer off Flaherty (1-2) provided a much-needed first punch for New York, which lost 10-2 in Game 4 on Thursday night and was outscored 30-9 in the first four games of the series.
“I do think there’s some momentum part of it where they ended up getting out of that first inning and (were) allowed to build some momentum, as opposed to getting a 1-0 lead in the top of the first,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
New York appeared on its way to an easy win when it extended its lead to 8-1 in the third, when Starling Marte (two-RBI double), Francisco Alvarez (single), Francisco Lindor (triple) and Brandon Nimmo (single) drove in runs.
But the Dodgers inched back against Peterson and relievers Reed Garrett and Ryne Stanek (1-0). Dodgers rookie center fielder Andy Pages hit the first of his two homers, a solo shot, in the fourth but New York answered when Jesse Winker laced an RBI triple and scored on Jeff McNeil’s sacrifice fly in the bottom half to put the Mets up 10-2.
Pages, 23, became the youngest Dodgers player with a multi-home run game in the postseason when he hit a three-run homer in the fifth. Mookie Betts led off the sixth with a round-tripper to pull the visitors within 10-6.
“It was good to see our guys fight back,” Roberts said. “Certainly, offensively, we’re in a really good spot.”
Stanek and Edwin Diaz finally cooled off the Dodgers by retiring 12 of the final 13 batters. Diaz got the last six outs in a non-save situation.
“Last night, on the walk back from the bullpen, we knew we obviously both didn’t throw,” Stanek said. “So we kind of joked, we’re like, ‘Well, you’ve got two and I’ve got two tomorrow.’ It was kind of acknowledging that that’s going to be what’s expected.”
Stanek earned the win after tossing 2 1/3 innings — his longest outing in 430 big-league appearances, counting the playoffs.
“We haven’t done anything the easy way yet this year,” Stanek said. “We looked at it as just an opportunity to do something special and why stop now? Obviously they’re a good team and we know that. But we know we have a good team and we’re not going to go down without swinging.”
The Mets added insurance on another sacrifice fly by McNeil in the sixth and an RBI single by Marte in the eighth. Marte tied a postseason franchise record with four hits, while the 12 runs were the second-most by New York in a playoff game.
In addition, the Mets became just the 11th team to go without a strikeout in a postseason game and the first since Oct. 20, 2002, when the then-Anaheim Angels beat the San Francisco Giants, 11-1, in Game 2 of the World Series.
Peterson, making his first start since Sept. 29, allowed two runs on six hits and four walks while striking out three over 3 2/3 innings.
Flaherty gave up eight runs on eight hits and four walks while striking out none over three innings.
–Jerry Beach, Field Level Media
