Mendoza plans to 'continue to ride our guys' after another shutout

NEW YORK -- Carlos Mendoza’s solution to the Mets’ second shutout in three games is simple: run it back.

Nothing much went the Mets’ way in National League Championship Series Game 3 on Wednesday at Citi Field, an 8-0 loss to the Dodgers that dunked the Mets into a 2-1 hole in this best-of-seven series. They didn’t score, despite some juicy opportunities. Their defense faltered. Each of their three pitchers, Luis Severino, Reed Garrett and Tylor Megill, gave up multiple runs.

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But Mendoza has reason to remain optimistic. In Game 1 on Sunday, the Mets looked even less vibrant at the plate, mustering only three singles. Their manager wrote out the exact same lineup card the next day, and they responded with six runs in the first two innings of Game 2.

Mendoza is hoping for something similar Thursday in Game 4.

“The guys that are in there got us to this point,” Mendoza said. “And I’m pretty confident they’ll come through.”

If the Mets are to do so, they’ll need to produce the key hits that eluded them Wednesday. They certainly can’t finish hitless with runners in scoring position again. They cannot strand another eight men on base.

The Mets can’t, in other words, squander dream scenarios like the one that unfolded in the second inning: bases loaded, Walker Buehler on the ropes, Francisco Lindor at the plate. Although Lindor stopped short of saying Buehler surprised him with a 3-2 knuckle curve, the fact remains that he swung through the pitch. And the Mets never recovered, failing to move another runner past second base the rest of the way.

“That was the pitch of the game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Obviously, the crowd was into it. They were gaining momentum. To get the breaking ball down below the zone and get a great hitter out was huge.”

So why would the Mets run back their lineup, given the relative lack of success this starting nine has engineered so far in the NLCS? One reason is the desire not to panic, as Mendoza mentioned. The day the Mets beat the Braves in Game 161 to clinch a playoff spot, they used a similar lineup to the one they ran out Wednesday. Outside of DH, which has vacillated between J.D. Martinez and Jesse Winker in October, they’ve also used the same personnel in each of their 10 postseason games.

“As of right now, I’m going to continue to ride our guys,” Mendoza said. “They got us here. They will continue to step up.”

The counterargument is that the Mets didn’t have a healthy Jeff McNeil for the first seven of those games, and they didn’t know quite what sort of shape McNeil would be in when he arrived for this series. Mendoza thought highly enough of McNeil to put him on the NLCS roster, but not highly enough to have him pinch-hit for Jose Iglesias in Game 3 with two men on base, one out and right-handed reliever Ryan Brasier on the mound in the sixth inning.

Because Dodgers lefty Anthony Banda was warm in the bullpen, Mendoza preferred matching Iglesias up against Brasier instead of McNeil against Banda. It wound up being the wrong choice, as Iglesias grounded into an inning-ending double play.

“I’m ready whenever my name’s called,” said McNeil, who flied out in a lower-leverage spot an inning later. “It is what it is. These guys have taken us this far, so I think we’re rolling with them.”

McNeil cited his pair of line drives against Dodgers Game 4 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto back in April as evidence that he would make an excellent addition to the lineup. But Mendoza indicated McNeil won’t be on the card, offering Yamamoto’s reverse platoon splits as the reason.

“I felt like I saw the ball well [against Yamamoto],” McNeil said. “I also think, personally, a fastball-changeup guy is my best guy. It is what it is. I’m not like most hitters. I feel like I stay through the ball really well, which is why I can handle changeups -- a splitter for him. But, yeah. We’ll see.”

It’s not just McNeil who will be on the bench Thursday. Winker, who had reached base in seven of his last 14 plate appearances heading into Game 3, is likely to remain sidelined because of Yamamoto’s splits. Mendoza had cited Buehler’s “neutral” splits as reason to start Martinez on Wednesday. He finished 0-for-2 with two walks.

Then there is right-handed catcher Francisco Alvarez, who is 5-for-35 (.143) with 13 strikeouts this postseason. Alvarez will be back in the lineup Thursday, Mendoza said, because “he’s a good player.”

“He’ll come through for us,” the manager added.

The Mets need him to. They need someone to -- anyone to, really -- if they want their postseason to continue.