Philadelphia Phillies at New York Mets (NYM Lead 2-1)
FINAL SCORE: NYM 7-2 PHI | WP Sean Manaea (1-0) | LP Aaron Nola (0-1)
Game three at Citi Field was highlighted by a dominating performance from the New York Mets on both sides of the field. The offense got out to an early lead and the Phillies would never be able to catch up after a phenomenal outing from Sean Manaea on the mound.
Manaea started his strong start with a one, two, three inning where he utilized his defense getting a flyout from Kyle Schwarber and two groundouts from Trea Turner and Bryce Harper. Aaron Nola would pick up two strikeouts in his first frame, sitting down the Mets top of the lineup in order.
Manaea would work a quicker frame in the second despite hitting JT Realmuto to keep the score knotted at 0-0. The Mets wouldn’t waste anymore time getting the scoring started, as Pete Alonso came up and took another home run to the opposite field to make the score 1-0.
After Manaea started off the third with another hit-by-pitch, he struck out both Johan Rojas and Kyle Schwarber. Trea Turner would threaten to keep the rally going with a single, but Bryce Harper would ground out to Manaea ending the attempted rally.
Francisco Alvarez would lead the third off with a single, but Nola would work out of it to keep the score at 1-0. The Mets defense would help out Manaea again in the top half of the fourth as Alec Bohm got thrown out trying to stretch a double.
After two straight outs in the bottom of the fourth, Jesse Winker came up and delivered a huge 399 foot home run to add another insurance run. Manaea would deal in the fifth, to work a quick inning and keep the 2-0 lead.
Aaron Nola would respond by striking out the side, but the offense just failed to respond. After back to back walks from Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper struck out and Nick Castellanos lined out into an inning ending double play.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Mets would get Aaron Nola into a quick jam after a Mark Vientos single was followed by back to back walks. Orion Kerkering would come in for relief, but Starling Marte would break his hitless streak in the series, delivering a two-RBI single to make the score 4-0.
When the Phillies needed to respond, Sean Manaea shut them down, recording one, two, three inning to go seven strong innings. The Mets would get the Phillies bullpen into another jam in the bottom of the seventh. The inning was capped off on Jose Iglesias scoring Harrison Bader and Brandon Nimmo to give the Mets a large 6-0 lead.
The Phillies would get a couple runs back off of a Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos RBI single. The Mets would add one more insurance run with a Francisco Lindor RBI double, and Ryne Stanek came in to close it out to give the Mets a 2-1 series lead.
Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres (SD Leads 2-1)
FINAL SCORE: SD 6-5 LAD | WP Michael King (2-0) | LP Walker Buehler (0-1) | SV Robert Suarez (2)
This National League West rivalry matchup has not disappointed all NLDS, and game three was no different. What looked like to be an easy win for the Padres after a big early lead turned into a high scoring bullpen duel that allowed San Diego to take a 2-1 series lead over the top seeded Los Angeles Dodgers.
In the top of the first Michael King would try to set the tone early by striking out Shohei Ohtani. This would be short lived momentum however as Mookie Betts would come to the plate and hit a solo home run, just off the glove of Jurickson Profar who nearly robbed his second home run of the series.
In the bottom of the first Tommy Edman would make the highlight of the one, two, three inning with a diving play to retire Luis Arraez. King would start to settle into the game, setting the Dodgers down in order and striking out Will Smith.
The Padres in the bottom half of the second would break the score wide open with a six spot. A Manny Machado single would start a huge rally. Jackson Merrill would hit a ground ball to Freddie Freeman and in an attempt to turn a double play, hit Machado’s helmet allowing Machado to advance to third.
Xander Boegarts would ground into a fielder’s choice that scored Machado, but the Dodgers failed to record a single out when attempting to turn yet another double play on the Bogaerts grounder. Veteran David Peralta would come up next and hit a go ahead two-RBI double.
After Jake Cronenworth got on base with a single, Kyle Higashioka was able to score David Peralta on a sacrifice fly-out. Fernando Tatis Jr. would then come to the plate and cap off the inning with an electric two run home run.
The Padres now commanded a 6-1 lead heading into the top of the third. They appeared as if they had the game won, but with this Dodgers lineup no lead is safe, and six innings is too much time. They wouldn’t need the remaining six innings to try and get back in the game, for they got right back in it in the next half inning.
The top of the third inning silenced the Padre faithful at Petco Park, after three straight singles got Michael King into a jam. Teoscar Hernandez would then come to the plate, and on a sweeper, the 2024 Home Run Derby champion did what he’s most known for, and hit a grand slam to straight away center field.
Those two innings were some of the most entertaining of the entire postseason so far, but unfortunately it would be the end of the scoring for this extremely entertaining game three. The bullpens for both units would come in and put on a show, but the Dodgers couldn’t complete the comeback.
Michael King, despite the grand slam and Betts home run, would still be credited with the win for going five innings pitched. Between four relievers in the Padres staff, there was only one hit given up, with Robert Suarez capping off the win with a strong 17 pitch save.
The Padres now hold the advantage, and the Dodgers now face elimination and another disappointing exit to a season that had such high expectations.