Pushed to the brink, the Mets pushed their best relievers to the brink.
On a night David Peterson contributed the best 3 ²/₃-inning, two-run effort the Mets have seen, they were tasked with piecing together the following 5 ¹/₃ innings.
They survived — a fitting word for the NLCS Game 5 victory — by asking for multiple innings from Edwin Diaz and for a marathon from Ryne Stanek in a 12-6 win over the Dodgers at Citi Field.
The Mets, who were up eight runs after four innings, played the elimination game as if there would be no tomorrow, even with the score lopsided, because of the power of the Dodgers bats.
The mission, to bring the series back to Los Angeles at any cost, was accomplished.
“These guys are nails, man,” Jesse Winker said. “They’re ready. They’re ready to come in and get outs, and they’re savages.”
The first savage was Reed Garrett, who did well to escape a bases-loaded, two-out jam that Peterson handed him by striking out Freddie Freeman, but he was hit in the next inning.
A plunking and a walk brought up Andy Pages, who drilled his second homer of the game to bring the Dodgers within 10-5.
Manager Carlos Mendoza essentially was down to two, big-armed relievers he trusted for the final 13 outs, and so he asked two, big-armed relievers for 13 outs.
“Today was the day we gotta go for it,” Diaz said of himself and Stanek. “He was ready. I was talking to him in the bullpen and he told me, ‘I will be ready to go six outs, seven outs, nine outs, if they need me.’ ”
They needed him.
Stanek entered and struck out Shohei Ohtani.
He returned for the sixth inning and surrendered a solo shot to Mookie Betts but nothing more.
For the first time, Stanek said, since his rookie season in 2017, he was asked for a third “up” — a third frame of work.
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“In the moment, it’s just a situation where you’re trying to empty the tank and go get them,” said Stanek, a power righty who recorded seven outs for the first time in a major league game.
He threw a clean seventh inning, clapping his glove as Gavin Lux popped up for the final out after his 31st pitch of the night.
His job finished, it was Diaz’s turn to push himself to the limit.
In a game the Mets were winning by five runs, Mendoza asked for six outs from Diaz — a length he only reached twice in the regular season and now once in the postseason — beginning in the eighth.
In the 1-2-3 frame, he blazed through Shohei Ohtani, who swung through an elevated fastball.
Diaz was efficient in the ninth, allowing only a Tommy Edman infield single and only requiring 23 pitches to record his six outs.
The Mets could exhale, and their most trusted arms in the bullpen could seek treatment.
Asked how he felt physically, Stanek laughed.
“Great,” he managed. “We won, so it’s great.”
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