NLDS Game 2: Can the Dodgers get even at home vs. the Mets?
Mets at Dodgers
Series: NLDS Game 2, Mets lead 1-0
Start Time: 9:00 p.m. ET
TV: TBS
Starting Pitchers: Noah Syndergaard (9-7, 3.24 ERA) vs. Zack Greinke (19-3, 1.66 ERA)
• Los Angeles desperately needs to win behind Greinke in this game with the unfavorable matchup of Harvey and Brett Anderson lurking for Game 3. The onus there is not so much on Greinke as it is on the Dodgers’ offense. Thirty of Greinke’s 32 starts during the regular season were quality and he completed six innings in all 32. Despite that and his 1.66 ERA on the season, L.A. managed to lose eight games Greinke started due to poor run support. They haven’t lost a Greinke start in which they have scored four or more runs all season and haven’t lost one in which they have scored three or more runs since the second day of the regular season.
Mets’ deGrom outduels Kershaw in Game 1 to leave Dodgers in tough spot
• Unlike Clayton Kershaw, his teammate and fellow NL Cy Young contender, Greinke has had no problem translating his regular-season excellence to the postseason as a Dodger. In four starts over the last two Octobers, three of which came against the Cardinals, Greinke has posted a 1.93 ERA while averaging seven innings per start.
• Greinke held the Mets to two runs over 14 innings in a pair of July starts, and no New York hitter has an encouraging track record against him. Lucas Duda and David Wright have the best career numbers versus Greinke, but Wright didn't face him this season because of injury, and Duda went 0 for 5 with a walk.
• Noah Syndergaard’s only career start against the Dodgers came in L.A. on July 3. Opposing Kershaw, he held them to one run on two hits and two walks over six innings in game the Mets ultimately won 2–1. L.A.'s run in that game came on an Adrian Gonzalez solo home run. The only Dodger to reach base twice against Syndergaard was Justin Turner, who doubled and walked. Turner was also one of just two Dodgers to reach base twice in Game 1 on Friday, going 2 for 4 with a single and a double, both off Jacob deGrom. He and Howie Kendrick, who also went 2 for 4, with an eighth-inning double off reliever Tyler Clippard included, were the only Dodgers not to strike out in Game 1.
• Clippard’s inability to get through the eighth inning on Friday is a significant concern for the Mets. He posted a 7.11 ERA over his last dozen regular-season appearances, blowing two saves early September and working largely in non-save situations in the second half of the month. He worked a clean inning to protect a 1–0 lead on the final day of the regular season, but with Game 1’s performance factored in, he now has a 7.43 ERA in his last 13 appearances. New York manager Terry Collins may want to avoid having Clippard face Kendrick again, as the latter is now 4 for 5 with two doubles in his career against the Mets’ primary set-up man.
