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Dodgers' Game 5 implosion helps Mets set franchise record while handing NY momentum

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Dodgers Way

Championship Series - Los Angeles Dodgers v New York Mets - Game 5 / Sarah Stier/GettyImages

Los Angeles Dodgers fans were treated to a playoff game that they would probably prefer to forget on Friday during Game 5 of the NLCS. After a rocky start, Jack Flaherty then imploded, and LA was never able to fully recover, as the Mets emerged victorious and forced a Game 6.

The Dodgers' problems started early on as Jack Flaherty was battling both some real command issues, as well as a troubling dip in his fastball velocity through the game's first few innings.

By the time LA was able to get their bullpen warming in the third, the wheels had come completely off, and Flaherty exited the game having given up eight runs.

The Mets just weren't missing anything on Friday evening. Brent Honeywell came into the game and, in addition to having almost no idea where his pitches were going (as some poor unsuspecting Mets players found out the painful way), he gave up two runs in the fourth and allowed New York to set a unique franchise record in a hurry.

Jack Flaherty's meltdown cost the Dodgers dearly in Game 5 of the NLCS

The Dodgers' offense at least tried to make things interesting, despite the deficit. After being down 10-2 by the end of the fourth inning, a three-run bomb from Andy Pages (his second homer of the game) in the fifth cut the deficit to five runs, and a solo shot from Mookie Betts made it a four-run game before the Mets immediately got the run back on a sac fly.

Despite Pages' and the rest of the lineup's best efforts, the damage was done and was too great to overcome, and now LA will have to wait for another chance to close this series out. After an off day on Saturday, Game 6 will happen in LA at 5:08 PM PST/8:08 PM EST.

Based on what we saw in Game 5, New York has a lot of reason to be confident the rest of the series. The Dodgers have to just hope that they can win one of the next two and punch their ticket to the Fall Classic and do all of this again.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.