National League Divisional Series
New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers
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The Mets and Dodgers are playing Game 5 of the NLDS for the right to play the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series. This game looks like it will be a pitcher’s duel, with Jacob deGrom going up against Zack Greinke. The Mets won Game 1 behind deGrom’s seven scoreless innings. Greinke countered with seven innings, giving up two runs in the Dodgers’ Game 2 win.
Curtis Granderson led off the first inning with a soft ground ball just past Greinke, and Justin Turner fielded the ball and threw out Granderson. The play was close enough for a replay review, and the call was overturned. Granderson had a leadoff single. Greinke struck out David Wright swinging for the first out of the game. Daniel Murphy hit one over Joc Pederson’s head in left-center field for an RBI double, and he went to third on an error in the outfield.
The Dodgers brought the infield in with one out in the first, a testament to how hard it is going to be to score runs tonight. Greinke got Yoenis Cespedes to strike out swinging for out number two. Greinke fell behind Lucas Duda 3-1, but he fought back to get his third swinging strikeout of the inning. The Mets led the Dodgers 1-0 going into the bottom of the first.
Howie Kendrick led off the bottom of the first with a rocket right to Lucas Duda for the first out. Corey Seager hit a hard line drive single to left field to become the Dodgers’ first base runner. Adrian Gonzalez ripped a single to right and Seager advanced to third, bringing up Justin Turner with runners at first and third with one out. Turner dumped the ball into right field to tie the game and the Dodgers again had runners at first and third with one out, this time with Andre Ethier at the plate. Ethier blooped the ball into shallow left field to give the Dodger a 2-1 lead. Yasmani Grandal came up with runners at first and second with one out. deGrom was able to get Grandal and Enrique Hernandez to strike out to end the inning. The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead into the second inning.
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Greinke struck out Travis d’Arnaud to open the second. Ethier made a spectacular diving catch in right field to rob Michael Conforto of extra bases for the second out. Greinke then got Wilmer Flores swinging for his fifth strikeout of the game.
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Pederson drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the second and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Greinke. Kendrick grounded to short, but Flores’ throw drew Duda off the bag and the Dodgers had runners on first and second with one out. deGrom fell behind Seager 3-0, but came back and struck out Seager and then struck out Gonzalez to get out of the inning.
Greinke got through a 1-2-3 third inning in the top of the third. Turner doubled down the left field line to lead off the bottom of the third. After Ethier lined out to left field, Turner stole third base to put a runner on third with one out. Grandal drew a walk, and Hernandez came up with runners on first and third with one out. Hernandez hit the ball back to deGrom, who started a double play to end the inning. The Dodgers still led 2-1 after three innings.
Murhpy led off the fourth inning with a single to right. Cespedes flew out to center for the first out. Duda drew a walk and, because of the defensive shift put on for Duda, Murphy went right past second and took an unoccupied third base. This went down as a stolen base and it proved to be critical. d’Arnaud hit a fly ball to Ethier that was deep enough to score Murphy on a sacrifice fly. Conforto grounded out to end the inning. deGrom worked around a leadoff walk to get out of the fourth with a 2-2 tie.
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Murhpy hit a 3-2 fastball down the right field line for a one-out home run to give the Mets a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth. Greinke struck out Cespedes and Duda to end the inning. deGrom responded with his first 1-2-3 inning of the game.
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Noah Syndergaard came in to pitch a scoreless seventh, and Jeurys Familia came in to attempt a six-out save. He got through the eighth, and the Dodgers came up in the bottom of the ninth needing a run to tie the game and keep their hopes alive.
Chase Utley came in to pinch hit to lead off the inning. Utley hit a fly ball to right field for the first out. A.J. Ellis struck out swinging for the second out. Kendrick came up as the Dodgers’ last hope, but he struck out swinging to end the game and the series.
Player of the Game: Daniel Murphy
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Murphy hit an RBI double in the first inning to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Then he used heads up base running to get to third with one out in the fourth inning, and scored on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at two. And finally, Murphy hit the go-ahead home run in the sixth inning. His final line was 3 for 4, a home run, two RBI and two runs scored.
National League Championship Series
The Mets will host the Chicago Cubs at Citi Field on Saturday for Game 1 of the NLCS. The Mets are trying to get to the World Series for the first time since losing in the Subway Series of 2000. This will be the first time that the Mets and Cubs ever met in the postseason.