The New York Mets now find themselves on the brink of elimination as their troubles containing the Los Angeles Dodgers offense in the NLCS continued on Thursday. For the third time in four game, the Dodgers offense found a way to score eight or more runs as they picked up a 10-2 win at Citi Field. The Dodgers are now one win away from reaching the World Series for the first time since 2020.

Jose Quintana got the start for the Mets, but his night would end up being shorter than most expected. He would end up allowing the Dodgers to score right away when Shohei Ohtani hit a solo home run to right center. It was the first time this series that Ohtani homered or drove in a run with men on base.

However, the Mets would find themselves back in the game immediately thanks to Mark Vientos. Vientos would hit a solo shot off of Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. His fourth home run of the playoffs and second of the NLCS tied the game at one.

Two innings later, it would be the Dodgers who would take the lead back. With two outs and Ohtani and Mookie Betts on base, Tommy Edman put Los Angeles in right with an RBI double. The lead would later go to 3-1 on an RBI single from Enrique Hernández.

The Mets would try to fight back in the bottom of the inning as they loaded the bases with one out. Brandon Nimmo was able to hustle and beat out a groundball that prevented an inning-ending double play and cut the deficit to 3-2. However, that would be the last run the Mets would score on the night.

As for Quintana, he ended up getting the first out of the fourth, but a single by Chris Taylor and an Ohtani walk ended his night right there. Jose Buttó would come in and he ended up allowing a two-run double to Betts to close out his line. The left-hander went 3 1/3 innings, allowed five runs on five hits, walked four batters, and struck out two on 83 pitches (44 strikes) in the loss.

Meanwhile, the Mets offense could not do much against Yamamoto after the first three innings. The right-hander went 4 1/3 innings, allowed two runs on four hits, walked a batter, and struck out eight on 73 pitches (52 strikes).

Evan Phillips would come in to pitch the fifth after Francisco Alvarez got hit by a pitch. He ended up getting five outs and become the winning pitcher.

New York’s best chance to get back in the game occurred in the sixth. A Nimmo single, Starling Marie single. and J.D. Martinez walk loaded the bases with nobody out. That chance to cut into the lead dissipated thanks to a Jose Iglesias strikeout, a Jeff McNeil flyout (pinch-hitting for Harrison Bader), and a Jesse Winker (pinch-hitting for Alvarez) flyout to the track in right against Blake Treinen.

As a team, the Mets ended up going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, had one extra-base hit, and they ended up leaving 12 men on base.

Betts would end up being a thorn in the Mets side later in the game when he hit a two-run home run in the sixth against Phil Maton. Betts went 4-for-6 on the night with three runs scored and four RBIs.

The Dodgers offense would tack on three more runs in the eighth against Danny Young thanks to a two-run double by Edman and an RBI single by Will Smith. In Los Angeles’s three wins in this series, they have combined to score 27 runs. They even made some history in this game when Max Muncy reached base for the 12th consecutive plate appearance, which is the most in MLB history (streak ended with a strikeout in the eighth).

Player Of The Game

The one bright spot for the Mets in Game 4 ended up being Vientos. His solo home run in the first gave him 12 RBIs on the postseason. Those 12 RBIs are tied with Curtis Granderson (2015) and John Olerud (1999) for the most RBIs by a Mets player in a single postseason.

On Deck

The Mets will try to avoid elimination on Friday afternoon when they host the Dodgers at Citi Field for Game 5 of the NLCS. You can watch the game on FS1 at 5:08 p.m. ET. The Mets will send David Peterson to the mound against Jack Flaherty for the Dodgers. This will be Peterson’s first start of the postseason after being a high-leverage reliever during the Wild Card series and the NLDS.