The Mets’ resilience will be tested in Game 4 against the Dodgers

NEW YORK – The New York Mets know how well they have responded to playing from behind this season.

The Los Angeles Dodgers can’t forget what happened the last time the Mets were in trouble.

The Mets will look to level the National League Championship Series, while the Dodgers will look to take a commanding lead on Thursday night when the teams play Game 4 of the best-of-seven set.

Left-hander Jose Quintana (0-0, 0.00 ERA in the playoffs) is scheduled to start for the Mets against right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1-0, 5.63 ERA).

Enrique Hernandez, Shohei Ohtani and Max Muncy provided security with home runs on Wednesday as Los Angeles took a 2-1 series lead with an 8-0 victory.

Hernandez’s home run in the sixth inning was the first extra-base hit of the game as both offenses struggled to generate momentum on a 51-degree night. The Dodgers went 2-for-9 with runners on base before Hernandez’s round-tripper, while the Mets finished 1-for-10 with runners on base.

Ohtani hit a 397-foot three-run home run in the eighth and Muncy went deep into the lead in the ninth for the Dodgers, who posted their second shutout in the NLCS. Los Angeles earned a 9-0 win in Game 1.

The two wins in this series rank among the three most lopsided shutout victories in Dodgers’ postseason franchise history – and also among the most lopsided shutout defeats in Mets’ postseason franchise history.

“I think when you’re in these playoffs, everything gets very blurry and very fast,” said Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler, who started Game 3 and allowed three hits over four innings. “And sometimes I think they feel bigger than they are. If we came out tomorrow and played like (garbage), we wouldn’t care how we played today.”

“I think that’s what we saw in LA: We get the big win in the first game and the second game doesn’t go our way.”

The Mets showed their typical resilience in Game 2 on Monday, as Francisco Lindor hit a leadoff home run and Mark Vientos hit a grand slam in the second inning for a 7-3 win.

The Mets slipped 11 games below .500 in early June, didn’t secure a playoff spot until September 30 when they split a doubleheader with the Atlanta Braves, and trailed by two runs with one out in the ninth inning of Game 3 the Milwaukee Brewers in an NL wild-card series before Pete Alonso hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning to spark a 4-2 victory.

“This is nothing new,” said New York pitcher Luis Severino, who suffered Wednesday’s loss after allowing two unearned runs over 4 2/3 innings. “We have to come back (Thursday) and try to win this game. If we win two out of three here, that would be huge for us.”

Quintana last pitched on October 9, when he was ruled out after allowing one unearned run over five innings as the Mets cruised to a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the NL Division Series advanced to the NLCS. He is 0-1 with a 2.43 ERA in seven career postseason games (six starts).

Yamamoto secured the win Friday when he gave up two hits in five scoreless innings as the Dodgers advanced to the NLCS by defeating the Padres 2-0 in Game 5 of the NLDS. It was the rookie’s second career postseason start after he scored five runs in three innings in the first game against San Diego.

Quintana is 3-2 with a 2.04 ERA in 13 career regular season games (10 starts) against the Dodgers. He went 0-1 with a 10.29 ERA in two postseason starts for the Chicago Cubs against Los Angeles in 2017.

Quintana lost his only start this season against the Dodgers on May 28, when he gave up three runs over six innings as the Mets lost 3-0 in the second game of a doubleheader.

Yamamoto had no influence on the decision in his only start against New York. He allowed four runs (three earned) over six innings as Los Angeles lost 9-4 on April 19.

–Jerry Beach, Field Level Media