Majority of Mets fans have their NLCS wish granted

Did you have a preference for who the New York Mets play in the NLCS? Around one-fourth of the voters in a poll thrown out by Anthony DiComo desired the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s exactly who the Mets will play when the NLCS begins on Sunday.

The poll results included 13,801 voters was no anomaly. Evan Roberts of WFAN put out a poll as well and his 5,528 voters agreed. Only around 6% more were ready to face the San Diego Padres.

Did the Mets draw the better opponent for the NLCS?

It depends what you wanted for this matchup. The easier route, of course, should be where your heart lies. The Dodgers aren’t as mighty as perceived. In a deciding Game 4 of their NLDS series, they went with a bullpen game. We shouldn’t expect much different from them in the NLCS when this battered ball club deploys a string of relievers against the Mets at least once in the upcoming best of seven series.

Before you go licking your chops, the anarchic bullpen game worked for the Dodgers and tends to be more than an action of punting. Sure, there are days when a team requests Johnny Wholestaff to get them through nine. It’s not just a last resort. Facing a slew of different pitchers is exactly what can keep a team unbalanced and off the scoreboard.

We were first introduced to the idea of an opener by the Tampa Bay Rays whose preference for this had as much to do with keeping the team payroll down. As it has evolved, teams like the Dodgers who do pay players have used it, too. The playoffs are a different animal and after the long grind of a season, any team might have to resort to this to get them through a series.

The three starters the Dodgers do have all pitched poorly for at least one start in the NLDS. Yoshinobu Yamamoto took the mound for Game 5, delivering a much better outing before the bullpen took over. The starting trio of Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty, and Walker Buehler are far better than what they’ve shown in the postseason. Was the layoff from the bye in part to blame?

In either case, the majority of Mets fans—at least those who voted in the two polls—have the team they want. Is it because they have more faith in beating the Dodgers than the Padres? Perhaps it’s about some vengeance for 1988. It’s a double-down on crushing the soul of Chase Utley. Beating the Dodgers is a hard slap against the way they circumnavigate the luxury tax by deferring Shohei Ohtani’s mega-contract. His last paycheck from the Dodgers will get delivered in 2043, a year before the 20-year anniversary of the 2024 Mets World Series win.