2024 National League Championship Series Viewers Guide

New York Mets (89-73) vs Los Angeles Dodgers (98-64)

Best-of-7 series, Dodgers host games 1-2 and 6-7

The Fall Classic Awaits

The Mets are looking to reach the World Series for the first time since 2015 and the sixth time in franchise history.

• This is the Mets’ ninth time playing in the NLCS with a 5-3 series record and a 26-17 (.605) win-loss record.

• They have the best LCS winning percentage of the dozen teams to have played at least 40 LCS games all-time.

The Dodgers are looking for their first trip back to the World Series since winning it in 2020.

• This is the Dodgers’ seventh NLCS appearance since 2013 and their 16th all-time. Only the Yankees (making their 19th) have been in the LCS more.

• LA has an 8-7 series record and a 39-42 (.481) win-loss record in the NLCS, 7th-best among the teams with 40+ LCS games.

ICYMI

The Mets took care of the NL East champion Phillies in four games in the NLDS, clinching a series at Citi Field for the first time in its history thanks to Francisco Lindor’s pivotal grand slam in Game 4

• Including the playoffs the Mets are 72-42 (.632) since starting the season 22-33 (.400), five more wins than any other team in baseball since May 30th (Padres are next with 67) and four-and-a-half games better than the Dodgers’ 65-44 (.596) mark in the same span.

The Dodgers shut out the Padres in Games 4 and 5 of the NLDS after losing two of the first three games, holding San Diego off the board for 25 straight innings to end the series.

• The Dodgers joined the Tigers as teams with consecutive shutouts this postseason. They’ll look to become the first team since 1966 and third team ever to post three straight shutouts in the same postseason (1966 Orioles and 1905 New York Giants each did it in the World Series).

Who’s Hot At the Right Time

The trio of Mark Vientos, Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso have a combined 1.060 OPS so far this postseason with six of the Mets’ eight home runs and half of the team’s RBI (19 of 38).

• Rookie Vientos is batting .429 in the playoffs (12-for-23) with a pair of homers in the first seven playoff games of his career. Vientos is the:

  • 13th player in postseason history with at least 12 hits, two homers and a .400 average in his first seven career playoff games.

  • The fifth to do that in the 21st century along with Eric Hosmer (2014 Royals), Jason Bay (2008 Red Sox), Carlos Delgado (2006 Mets) and Carlos Beltran (2004 Astros)

  • And the second-youngest of the 13 players — only Chipper Jones (23 years old in 1995) was younger than Vientos (24). Only Hosmer (an older 24) and Ken Griffey Jr. (25 in 1995) join Vientos in doing it at age 25 or younger.

• Lindor came alive in Games 2-4 against the Phillies, going 5-for-15 (.333 avg, 1.000 OPS) in Games 2-4 with a pair of doubles and the decisive grand slam after starting the playoffs 2-for-12 with just one extra-base hit (a double) and one RBI in his first four games this October.

• Alonso is doing all he can to extend his Mets tenure as free agency looms. His team-high 3 homers in these playoffs have given him 230 overall in his Mets career (third in team history behind Darryl Strawberry and David Wright) and 4 in his playoff career (tied with several others for third behind Daniel Murphy and Mike Piazza).

A couple of players named Hernandez lifted the Dodgers in Game 5 against the Padres and Mookie Betts came alive after a two-year postseason slumber while fellow MVPs Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman struggled.

• Teoscar Hernandez went 6-for-18 (.333) with a couple homers in the NLDS while Kiké Hernandez went 3-for-9 and got the Dodgers the only run they needed in Game 5 (before Teoscar added one later).

  • Kiké’s homer in Game 5 was the 9th of his Dodgers playoff career, tied for 6th in team history behind only Corey Seager and Justin Turner (13 each), Max Muncy and Duke Snider (11 each) and Steve Garvey (10).

  • Teoscar hadn’t performed much in his previous playoff experience, going 3-for-15 in four total playoff games with the Blue Jays in 2020 and 2022 while striking out five times (though he did have a pair of homers). He followed that up with a pair of singles in Games 1 and 2 against the Padres while going 2-for-7 (.286) before going 4-for-12 with a pair of homers in Games 3-5.

• Betts went 2-for-25 over the 2022-23 postseasons including 0-for-the-LDS last year, then went 0-for-6 in the first two game of these playoffs to bring his misery to 2-for-31 spanning three years. He broke out with a leadoff homer in Game 3 and did it again in Game 4, going 4-for-9 in those two games with 3 RBI before an 0-for-3 in Game 5.

• With the Padres content to walk Ohtani any time he didn’t expand the strike zone to get himself out and Freeman severely limited by a sprained ankle suffered during the final days of the regular season, two-thirds of the Dodgers three-headed MVP monster went a combined 8-for-34 in the NLDS.