Walker Buehler’s stressful but gritty four innings get the team off to a good start, and Shohei Ohtani sends the Mets fans home early with a towering home run in an 8-0 win.
Question: How do you empty a full Citi Field?
Answer: Pitch to Shohei Ohtani with men on base.
Did the Dodgers take command of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night in the moment that Ohtani turned on a Tylor Megill cutter and sent it screaming over the right field foul pole and into the second deck?
Probably not right away. But Ohtani’s three-run bomb, upheld by video review and occurring two innings after another Kiké Hernández playoff moment, turned a relatively tight game into another runaway. It helped the Dodgers toward an 8-0 victory over the New York Mets and a 2-1 series lead – and consider that in NLCS history, teams winning Game 3 have won 35 of 54 series (64.8%).
And there were some subtle advantages beyond the series lead created by Ohtani’s latest Ruthian – yes, I said it – blast.
One benefit was to get Freddie Freeman off of his feet for a couple of innings. Freeman has been limited but gamely soldiering on with a bad ankle, and he made two big scoops of throws in the dirt at first base on Wednesday night. The more chances to give him innings off the better.
The other advantage? The big lead saved Manager Dave Roberts from having to use a couple more of his high-leverage relievers in the late innings, after Walker Buehler had given the Dodgers a stubbornly magnificent four innings and 90 pitches, struggling with traffic on the bases but coming up with what he needed to keep those runners from scoring.
Notably, Buehler ended each inning with a strikeout. He fanned Pete Alonso with a runner on in the first and got Francisco Alvarez and Francisco Lindor to end the second and leave the bases loaded, the latter on a 3-and-2 curveball that prompted a primal scream from Buehler as he walked off the mound.
