Los Angeles – Hours after the high-profile, high-priced Yankees crashed like the 1929 stock market, New York’s other team stood tall.
The Mets beat the Dodgers 9-5 Saturday night, sweeping their way into the National League Championship Series and upholding their reputation as the NL’s dominant team. The underachieving Yankees were beaten 8-3 by Detroit on Saturday, losing the American League divisional series 3-1.
“We’re from New York, too,” Mets manager Willie Randolph, the former Yankees player and coach, said from the champagne-sprayed clubhouse. “But I really don’t want to talk about the Yankees, this night is about us.”
But it’s clear that the team from Queens handled the postseason pressure much better than its counterpart from the Bronx.
“All I can say is that we have a great coaching staff and players of great quality,” he said. “And you have to have fun. You see all of these guys running around in here tonight and you can see that we all like each other. It’s a brotherhood and we’re going after this together.”
The Mets next face either St. Louis or San Diego. It will be the Mets’ first trip to the NLCS since 2000.
The Cardinals lead the Padres 2-1 in that five-game series, with Game 4 scheduled tonight at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium. The NLCS opens Wednesday at New York’s Shea Stadium.
“This is incredible, but we’re nowhere near the top of the mountain,” said first baseman Carlos Delgado.
The Mets’ lineup is loaded with sluggers, such as Delgado, but it wasn’t big bats that beat the Dodgers. Rather, the Mets stung the Dodgers with 14 hits, including seven run-scoring singles. Right fielder Shawn Green, a late-season pickup from Arizona, was 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs.
The pivotal inning was the sixth, when the Mets’ Jose Reyes, Paul Lo Duca and Carlos Beltran squibbed consecutive RBI singles just over the infield, turning a 5-4 Dodgers lead into a 7-5 New York advantage. Call the hits cheap, lucky or puny, but call them effective.
There was a late-arriving crowd at Dodger Stadium, thanks to a typical Los Angeles traffic jam near the ballpark. The Dodgers showed up late, too, falling into an early hole. Starter Greg Maddux, the four-time Cy Young Award winner, was viewed as L.A.’s last, best hope. But the man nicknamed “The Professor” had no answers Saturday. The Mets punished him with five straight singles in the first inning to post a 3-0 lead.
Maddox’s ugly first inning prompted legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully to remark: “This reminds me of the old story where the manager comes out and asks the catcher, ‘How’s his stuff?’ The catcher says, ‘I don’t know, I haven’t caught any yet.”‘
The 40-year-old Maddux, in what could be the final game of his career, lasted four innings, allowing four runs on seven hits.
Mets starter Steve Trachsel lasted just 3 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on six hits. The Mets used seven pitchers in all, with left-handed reliever Pedro Feliciano getting the victory.
The Dodgers rapped 16 hits, led by Jeff Kent’s 4-for-5 performance that included a homer, but it wasn’t enough. The Dodgers were swept out of a playoff series for the first time since losing three straight to the Braves in the 1996 NL division series.
Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
