In the first five innings, four Mets at-bats powered an estimated 1,460 feet of deep flies.
Which added up to four outs.
The Mets were glad to have the fans at their back after a pair of games in Los Angeles, but they were less glad to have the wind in their face and the chilly, fall weather around them during a game in which many balls were hit hard, but only the Dodgers managed to clear the wall (three times).
The Mets were held inside the park during the 8-0, Game 3 loss that put them in another NLCS hole on a night the temperature fell into the mid-40s — and batted balls played like they did during the offensively challenging times in April.
“Our job is to control the strike zone and hit the ball hard,” Carlos Mendoza said after his club was shut out for a second time in the series. “And today we hit a few of them, and they caught it at the warning track.”
The Mets had a difficult time piercing batted balls through the chill. The Dodgers?
“They hit it out. Just not us,” Francisco Lindor said after smacking two deep balls on an 0-for-4 night. “Felt like I had quality at-bats. Just didn’t get any hits. I hit the ball hard.”
Four times in the early going the Mets put forth swings that brought fans to their feet, and each one finished with those fans disappointed in retaking their seats.
The tone was set immediately with the first batter in the bottom of the first inning, Lindor smacking a Walker Buehler fastball that jumped off his bat at 100.1 mph.
It chased left fielder Kiké Hernandez back to the warning track but died in Hernandez’s glove, 371 feet away.
In the third inning it was Pete Alonso who swung, hoped and then returned to the dugout.
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With a runner on first, the slugger drilled a Buehler offering 351 feet to left for a drive that Statcast estimated would have been a home run at four ballparks.
]None of those parks were Citi Field, the ball falling into Hernandez’s glove.
Twice in the fifth inning the Mets allowed themselves to believe and twice they were let down.
Against Michael Kopech, Lindor smacked another one to left, a 350-foot shot that would have led to a circling of the bases in Houston, but it went for another fly out.
For his part, Lindor did not believe either of his swings would produce a home run. The Mets’ best chance at that kind of swing came two pitches later.
Mark Vientos crushed a Kopech cutter that flew off his bat at 103.6 mph and traveled 388 feet to right-center. What would have been a home run at Dodger Stadium was yet another out at Citi Field.
“That ball a month ago is a homer,” Mendoza said.
All of those cuts provided hope but doubt, too.
There was no doubt when Shohei Ohtani demolished his three-run home run halfway up the second deck in right.
There was no doubt when Max Muncy catapulted a solo homer to the upper deck in right in the ninth.
Kiké Hernández, too, ensured he got enough of a two-run shot in the sixth inning.
“Just got to get hits,” Lindor said, “just got to make something happen.”
