Mark Vientos on Monday smashed a grand slam and Francisco Lindor homered as well as the New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-3 to level the National League Championship Series 1-1.
Vientos’ four-run blast in a determined second inning at-bat helped the New York Mets rebound from a 9-0 drubbing in Game 1 on Sunday in the best-of-seven series.
The winner of the series advances to face either the New York Yankees or the Cleveland Guardians in the World Series.
Photo: AP
The Yankees, fueled by homers from Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto, and six strong innings from starting pitcher Carlos Rodon, beat the Guardians 5-2 to open the American League Championship Series.
The Mets made an early statement when Lindor led off the game with a home run off Dodgers hurler Ryan Brasier, ending the Dodgers pitching staff’s record-equaling streak of 33 scoreless innings.
The Dodgers had not surrendered a run since the second inning of Game 3 of their division series against the San Diego Padres.
In the second inning, Vientos got the better of Dodgers reliever Landon Knack, crushing the ninth pitch he saw over the center-field seats to push the Mets’ lead to 6-0.
Starling Marte had opened the inning with a single off Knack and scored on Tyrone Taylor’s double that left runners at second and third. Lindor was intentionally walked to load the bases and bring up Vientos.
The 24-year-old Vientos admitted he “took it personally” when the Dodgers walked Lindor to bring him to the plate.
“At that point I was just, let me simplify the game, just get one run in, get a walk — whatever I can do to add another run to the score,” he said. “Luckily, I hit a bomb there and it went over the fence.”
The Mets host the next three games today, tomorrow and on Friday.
“I think we’re in a great spot,” Vientos said. “I like the momentum we got.”
Mets starter Sean Manaea allowed three runs, including two earned, on two hits over five innings with four walks and seven strikeouts.
Max Muncy hit a solo homer for Los Angeles in the fifth inning, but the Dodgers’ vaunted lineup was largely silenced. Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani was none-for-three with two strikeouts and two walks.
The Dodgers put up two runs in the sixth inning after Manaea walked Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez, and Jose Iglesias mishandled Freddie Freeman’s ground ball to load the bases.
Phil Manton came in for Manaea and gave up a single to Tommy Edman that scored Betts and Hernandez. The Mets added one more run in the top of the ninth.
In New York, Soto put the Yankees in front with a solo homer to lead off the third inning.
Cleveland pitcher Alex Cobb walked three of the next five batters before he was replaced by Joey Cantillo, who threw a couple of wild pitches into the dirt against the next two Yankees batters, allowing Aaron Judge and Stanton to score for a 3-0 New York lead.
The Yankees made it 4-0 in the fourth inning when Judge’s sacrifice fly scored Gleyber Torres.
The Guardians pulled a run back in the sixth on Brayan Rocchio’s solo homer off Rodon, one of two hits he surrendered in six strong innings that featured nine strikeouts, but Stanton made it 5-1 with a towering blast to left-center field in the seventh.
After Cleveland’s Steven Kwan drove in a run with one out in the eighth inning, the Yankees turned to closing pitcher Luke Weaver, who recorded the last five outs for the save.
The Yankees, owners of 27 World Series titles, are chasing their first appearance in a World Series since they beat Philadelphia for the crown in 2009.
The Guardians are seeking their first World Series appearance since 2016 and their first title since 1948.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
‘GLOBAL PRESSURE’: LA’s Dave Roberts said that it was difficult to appreciate the ‘pressure on a global scale’ his starter was under ‘pitching for his country’ The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out US$1 billion for Japanese talent in the off-season and it is paying off in the MLB playoffs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic post-season matchup of Japanese-born starters, while the Dodgers got home runs from Kike Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 and advance to the National League Championship Series. “It’s pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said. Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the win, getting pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a