NEW YORK — Not easy to knock out these New York Mets. Pete Alonso golfed an early three-run homer and the Mets hammered an ineffective Jack Flaherty, extending the National League Championship Series with a 12-6 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 on Friday.
“We understood that this is a do-or-die game and we have to give everything we had, and that’s what we did,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said.
Starling Marte had three doubles, four hits and three RBIs for New York. Francisco Alvarez broke out of a slump with three hits — including an RBI single in a five-run third inning.
Jesse Winker laced an RBI triple and so did Lindor, feeling good vibes after The Temptations performed his cheery walk-up song, “My Girl,” on the field before the game.
“We showed up today. We needed that,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Obviously, Pete setting the tone in the first inning was important. We just continued to add on.”
Blown out in three of the first four games, including the past two nights at home, the wild-card Mets turned the tables and saved their thrilling season for the second time in these playoffs — both with the help of a three-run shot by Alonso. They trimmed their series deficit to 3-2 and sent the best-of-seven NLCS back to Los Angeles for Game 6 on Sunday.
“After yesterday’s game, we just had a collective conversation where it was like, hey, this is it,” Alonso said. “This is who we are. This is the situation we’re in and let’s keep continuing to lay it all out there.”
Sean Manaea is lined up to start Sunday for New York on five days’ rest, while the Dodgers will go with another bullpen game because of a thin rotation decimated by injuries.
“We come from a lot of adversity,” Mets closer Edwin Díaz said. “We can beat them.”
With an opportunity to pitch his hometown team into the World Series, an ailing Flaherty flopped. After throwing seven shutout innings of two-hit ball in a Game 1 win, he fell behind 3-0 four batters in when Alonso launched a low slider 432 feet to center field for his fourth homer this postseason.
“He wasn’t sharp, clearly. He’s been fighting something. He’s been under the weather a little bit,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said about Flaherty. “So I don’t know if that bled into the stuff, the velocity. I’m not sure.”
Alonso, poised to become a prized free agent this fall, also hit a go-ahead shot with the Mets facing elimination in Game 3 of their Wild Card Series at Milwaukee. That one was more dramatic, coming with New York trailing 2-0 and down to its final two outs in the ninth.
But once again, Alonso went deep to help prolong his tenure with a Mets team that drafted him in 2016. The ball was just more than a foot above the ground when he connected, the second-lowest pitch Alonso has homered on in his career.
“For the rest of us mortals, we fly out. But for him, it’s just an absolute bomb. Just normal Pete,” teammate Brandon Nimmo said.
The big slugger also scored four runs and fought back from an 0-2 count to draw a leadoff walk in the third, when the Mets batted around and opened an 8-1 cushion.
“He got us going,” Mendoza said. “I thought that Pete did a really good job controlling the strike zone today.”
Aware it could be the last home game for Alonso at Citi Field, the sellout crowd of 43,841 chanted his name when he batted in the eighth.
“It’s so special. It’s like storybook-type stuff,” Alonso said. “When you grow up as a kid, you dream about that type of stuff.”
Flaherty allowed eight runs and eight hits in three innings. He failed to strike out a batter for the first time since a September 2022 game with St. Louis against Pittsburgh.
After striking out 12 times Thursday night, the Mets did not whiff once. They became the first team to do that in the postseason since the Angels in Game 2 of the 2002 World Series against San Francisco.
“We didn’t chase his secondary pitches,” Mendoza said, referring to Flaherty. “We know he’s got that slider and the knuckle-curve, and he’s going to try to make us chase and we didn’t do that today. And when he came in the zone with his fastball, we were ready. And that’s the key.”
