The New York Mets were able to solve many things in 2024.
They were able to solve their 28-37 record before June 12 by going 61-38 through the rest of the season, courtesy of their purple friend Grimace.
They were able to solve their eight-year second-round drought by winning the wild-card series — and advancing to the league championship series — for the first time since 2015.
The one thing they haven’t been able to solve this NLCS? The enigma that is Shohei Ohtani.
The 30-year-old Los Angeles Dodgers powerhouse has homered in the past two games of this series — a three-run bomb to blow Game 3 open and a leadoff to get Game 4 started — to help the Dodgers take a commanding 3-1 series lead.
To a man, it seems like Ohtani has found his playoff groove in the knick of time and is well on his way to make the World Series in his first-ever post-season appearance.
All of it has left the Mets scratching their heads.
“It’s almost like a 14-year-old playing with 10-year-olds,” Mets outfielder J.T. Martinez said, according to the New York Post‘s Jon Heyman. “The ballpark is just so small for him. He generates so much power, hits the ball so hard — it’s a deadly combination.”
Ohtani has been utilizing that power to torment teams all around the MLB in 2024. Though an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament has prevented him from pitching this season, what he’s been able to do at the plate despite that has been no short of jaw-dropping.
Aside from batting .310 over the course of the season as designated hitter, Ohtani did something that no other player had done before when he recorded 50 stolen bases and 50 home runs — with two weeks to spare in the season. For fun, he added another four home runs and nine stolen bases after making history.
Perhaps some of his best work comes with runners on base.
In the regular season, Ohtani became the fastest to reach 40-40 when he hit a walk-off grand slam for the Dodgers and achieved 50-50 in a game when he had a whopping 10 RBI — arguably one of the greatest games played by an individual in baseball history.
Regular season aside, Thursday’s homer was Ohtani’s first hit with the bases empty. Through the post-season, he’s 7-for-9 with runners on base with two home runs and 8 RBI, per Sportsnet Stats.
As for the Mets, they’ll need to mount their biggest comeback yet to stifle Ohtani and the rest of the dangerous-looking Dodgers.
“I feel like they’re rolling right now and it’s going to take a big-time momentum shift to stop them,” Martinez continued. “Teams have come back from down 3-1. It has happened.”
Game 5 is Friday and can be seen, starting at 4:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
from Sportsnet.ca
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