LOS ANGELES—The National League Championship Series begins Sunday at Dodger Stadium with the Dodgers trying to keep the New York Mets from completing a sweep of the NL’s division champions.
The Mets qualified for the postseason as the third of three National League wild-card teams, then defeated the Central Division champion Milwaukee Brewers in a wild card series, two games to one, and East Division champion Philadelphia Phillies, three games to one, in a division series.
New York started the season 0–5 and dropped to 22–33 when the Dodgers completed a three-game sweep May 29 at Citi Field but concluded the season by winning 20 of their final 29 games.
“We’ve been through a lot, man,” first-year manager Carlos Mendoza said after Wednesday’s 4–1 victory over Philadelphia that advanced the Mets to the championship series for the first time since 2015. “There was so much adversity and injuries.
“From the beginning nobody had us doing anything this year. This was supposed to be a transition year and we kept believing. We knew we had really good players. We knew we had great people and we just kept doing our thing.”
Right-hander Kodai Senga will start for New York, making his third major league appearance of the season. The 31-year-old strained the posterior capsule in his right shoulder early in spring training, then began a minor league rehabilitation stint July 3.
Senga made his season debut with the Mets on July 26 when he allowed two runs and two hits over 5 1/3 innings in an 8–4 victory over the Atlanta Braves and was the winning pitcher.
However, he was placed on the injured list the following day due to a left calf strain and didn’t pitch again until Sept. 21 when he pitched one shutout inning for Syracuse, the Mets’ triple-A affiliate.
Senga was the starter in Game 1 of the division series, allowing a 425-foot home run to Kyle Schwarber on his third pitch, then retired six of the next seven batters in his two innings.
When asked Saturday if he expected Senga “to go maybe three innings, something like that?” Mendoza replied, “Yeah.”
Senga was 12–7 with a 2.98 ERA in 29 starts in his first season with New York in 2023 after pitching 11 seasons with Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Japan’s Pacific League.
Senga’s lone appearance against the Dodgers came on July 15, 2023, when he allowed one run on a solo home run by Mookie Betts and four hits in six innings and did not figure in the decision in the Dodgers’ 5–1 victory.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani was 1-for-1 with a double and two walks in his only appearance against Senga.
The effectiveness of Senga’s forkball has prompted it to be nicknamed the “ghost fork” in Japan which he pays homage to on his glove with a graphic of a ghost holding a pitchfork.
Right-hander Jack Flaherty will pitch for the Dodgers, one week after starting and losing Game 2 of the division series against the San Diego Padres, allowing four runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings, including two of their postseason record-tying six home runs.
Flaherty had a 6–2 regular-season record with a 3.58 ERA after being acquired by the Dodgers on July 30 from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for minor leaguers Thayron Liranzo and Trey Sweeney. The Dodgers were 7–3 in his 10 regular-season starts.
Manager Dave Roberts said it was “highly unlikely” that reliever Alex Vesia will pitch in the series due to what Roberts called a “side intercostal situation.” Vesia entered Friday’s 2–0 series-clinching victory over the Padres with two outs in the seventh inning, struck out Jackson Merrill to end the inning, but was unable to continue pitching after warming up before the start of the eighth.
The Mets are “a completely different team” then when they last faced the Dodgers May 28–29, Roberts said.
“They’re playing considerably better,” Roberts said. “Lindor is back to being Frankie. They’ve just got a lot of confidence.”
Lindor’s total of 33 home runs was tied for sixth in the National League with Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández, while his 34 doubles tied four fourth with San Francisco third baseman Matt Chapman.
This is the second time the Dodgers and Mets have met in the NLCS, with the Dodgers winning in seven games in 1988 in their previous meeting. The teams also met in division series in 2005 and 2015 with New York winning both times.
Former Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez will throw the ceremonial first pitch. The national anthem will be sung by Grammy-winning R&B quartet All-4-One. A flyover will be conducted by two F/A-18 Super Hornets during the national anthem.
The 5:15 p.m. game will be televised by Fox.
